ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of how the Western democratic order has come to be under threat from populist politics in the early twenty-first century. It focuses primarily but not exclusively on the emergence and development of populism in the Anglo-American democracies that have been in the forefront of this renaissance (particularly the UK, the US, and New Zealand). It shows the interconnections and overlaps between developments in this cluster of societies and the rise of populist politics in other Western democracies. It argues that the roots of this populist renaissance can be found in the neo-liberal restructuring that began in the 1980s. That said, while local contingencies also shape the specific form populism takes in a particular society, there are common threads as well, particularly a strong emphasis on law and order.
