ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship between the rise of right-wing populism and the future of free trade, by looking at both demand-side and supply-side mechanisms. On the demand side, while some scholars have argued that right-wing populist voters are motivated by the economic dislocations of globalization, the evidence that populists are necessarily protectionists is less than clear. Right-wing populist governance may undermine free trade in other ways, nonetheless. Free trade relies in part on a host of international institutions that increase the likelihood of cooperation between states. Features of right-wing populist governance (e.g. less executive constraint, opposition to the rule of law, and reliance on narrow winning coalitions) are likely to clash with those institutions in ways that will undermine free trade, regardless of the orientation of a particular populist movement toward trade.
