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populism as a positive term, and a critique of critics

Since I wrote last fall, several notable developments in the scholarship and discussion of populism have occurred. The South African intellectual and scholar Xolela Mangcu has entered the global discussion, building on a highly visible lecture he gave in Cape Town for the Wolpe Trust last June 18, ""Jacob Zuma on the Politics of Grievance"" (http://www.wolpetrust.org.za/dialogue2007/mangcupaper.pdf ). In this lecture Mangcu takes issue with what he sees as the discussions of ""populism"" that caricature its meanings and history as simply a rhetorical stance or politics of popular grievance against elites. He developed this argument in his weekly column in Business Day December 7, 2007, drawing on Gianna Pomata's scholarship on the history of populism in Europe  and her treatment of populist critics as part of an intellectual tradition of ""Enlightenment rationalism"" and growing separation of of popular and elite intellectual cultures. He also makes  a number of parallels with South African journalists and scholars whom he believes treat populism in very superficial ways. . Mangcu also develops these arguments in his forthcoming book, To the Brink (Universityof Kwa Xulu Natal, 2008), sure to create a major discussion in African academic and intellectual circles since he is widely described as the main intellectual heir to Steve Biko, the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement. FOr an excerpt of his forthcoming book see http://book.co.za/bookchat/topic.php?id=2079

As far as Mike Huckabee's ""populism"" is concerned, the piece by David Kirkpatrick in the New York Times January 13, 2008 (""Young Evangelicals Embrace Huckabee"") has a detailed discussion of why many Catholics and evangelicals see him as populist. The article, among many in the American election season, is shows the strikingly difference valence of populism in the US and Europe. In the US the term, on balance, clearly has positive associations  otherwise major candidates like Edwards and Huckabee would not use it in self-description. This is  a product, most likely, of the much greater public awareness of the history of democratic movements like the 19th century farmers' cooperatives, New Deal reform, and the black freedom strucggle as broadly populist. Boyte 13 January"