ABSTRACT
Although it can freely be conceded that there is no necessary connection between populism and anti-democracy—indeed, in some circumstances, democracy and populism will be quite compatible—in this chapter, a very different story unfolds. Some classical and contemporary notions of populism are considered and placed in the Australian context in order to argue that contemporary populism is best understood as the result of several decades of the degradation of democracy. By denying representation to at least half the population, the dominance of neoliberalism and the acquiescence of the nominal left created a programmatic and policy vacuum in which right populism emerged and then thrived. Paradoxically, the process of depoliticization in the economic sphere was accompanied by hyper-partisanship over matters in civil society. A menace to democracy, the dual process of depoliticization and hyper-partisan politics has been leading Australia towards the entrenchment of authoritarian politics.
