Defining Populism as a Group of Internally Stable ...

Defining Populism as a Group of Internally Stable “Syndromes”

The British scholar Peter Wiles proposed that people like to carve their populist definitions with sharp academic axes.His understanding of populism broke through the traditional populism in Russia and the United States.In his view，the “Populists” in Russia and the “Populist Party” in the United States in the late 20th century are not the earliest populist phenomena.The Charter Movement，the Affirmative Movement and the Diggers Movement in British history are the earlier prototypes of populist movements.Wiles argued that populism in a broad sense is “a belief or movement built on the cognitive premise that virtue exists in the overwhelming majority of civilians and in their collective tradition”.^[23] He claimed that populism is “a syndrome，not a doctrine”.Just as a disease has a series of syndromes，populism in the above cognitive premise will also produce a series of “inherently stable” political syndromes.He summed up 24 symptoms of populism，for example，the scattered ideology of populism；the strongly opposition to organizational systems，elites and intelligence；usually having a charismatic leader talking directly with the public；advocating the popularization of words and deeds，dressing and lifestyles；devoted to moral preaching instead of logical reasoning，etc.”^[24] It must be noted that Wiles ’ summary of populist syndromes is scattered and lacks internal unity.In fact，many examples of populism do not fully conform to these syndromes.