ABSTRACT
The proliferation of populist movements, leaderships and parties, together with their transition from the margins to the mainstream of party systems, signalled a dramatic change in the global political landscape. Populists sought to harness indignation as a force for change by channelling popular frustration and electorally uncommitted protest grievance against what they characterised as ‘the political establishment’. Populism in government is often thought of as an epitome of contradiction. Its relationship with institutions can be uneasy. Focusing on populism’s ‘outcomes’ –the impact it may have on the institutions of representation – Muller and Pappas assert that the destiny of populism in government is to descend into illiberal and authoritarian forms. Many contemporary phenomena are treated under the rubric of ‘populism’, and due to the negative valence of the term in public discussion, egalitarian and pluralistic manifestations are sometimes collapsed into xenophobic and regressive typologies.
