Eli5 what is populism?
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Populism is a catch-all term for political ideologies and styles that are meant to appeal to the general populace, particularly at the expense of the wealthy, powerful, and/or academic “elite” of a given nation (alternatively; populism inherently seeks to “other” a segment of the population seen as having undue power or influence over society). In the current era, that typically takes the format of political movements or parties that are broadly “against” globalization and free markets and are in favor of protectionist economic policy, and aren’t that squeamish about government spending, particularly on jobs and/or social programs. However, it doesn’t really have a strict social/religious ideological basis; instead, the social end of a populist government would cater to whatever social positions are most popular within a given nation. Thus, populism is available in both left- and right-leaning varieties.
For examples; the Trump wing of the Republican party in the US would almost certainly qualify as right-populist, whereas the Sanders wing of the Democratic party, and the progressives in general, would qualify as left-populist. The various Labour parties of the former British Empire would also, generally, be described as left-populist, particularly the Corbyn wing of British Labour. Elsewhere, many of the various controversial politicians that came to power around the same time as Trump (e.g. AMLO in Mexico, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey, etc.) are populists.
For their more extreme variants; communism, anarcho-socialism, Nazism, and fascism are all broadly under the “populist” umbrella.
Edit: the political antonym of populism isn’t defined all that well, but could probably be described as “institutionalism” or (more derogatorily) “elitism,” wherein people would believe that smaller, powerful institutions working within a government, and within society in general, should be in charge of setting policy. However, those institutions would necessarily funnel a lot of power into the hands of a relatively smaller cadre of society, hence why it’s “elitist.”
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