Populism is the word of the moment. It’s used to explain everyone from Donald Trump to Marine Le Pen to Beppe Grillo and is what is known in political circles as ‘a bad thing’. Mainstream politicians and newspaper columnists are very, very afraid of it.

I’m not too worried about defining the word in an attempt to decide who is and who isn’t a populist. As US Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, said about pornography: “I know it when I see it.”

Populism is a label, given to those trying to break the mould by appealing directly to the people over the heads of the traditional political system. As an insult, it implies that the ‘populist’ is exploiting the basest instincts of the ‘people’.

Certainly it’s about more than popularity - you’re not much of a politician if you’re not popular, whatever your other political skills - ask Jeremy Corbyn.

But, for me, the division between populism and mainstream comes down to the question: “Do you put your faith in individuals or in institutions?” It’s when people lose faith in their democratic institutions that they turn to populists and demagogues.

To generalise… the strong and the successful support and defend institutions, the weak and the left-behind back individual heroes or heroines to save them.

Was Donald Trump’s election, then, a triumph of populism? Yes, but his success was as much as anything the result of half America’s voters losing faith in the institutions of their Federal Government, as personified in the president, as well as the traditional party system.

Not enough Americans trusted the institutions of the head of state (President), legislature (Congress) and the judiciary (Supreme Court) to deliver for them. So, they invested their hopes in The Man. The Man who would take on those institutions, shake them up and remind them who they work for.

Italy and France are regularly at the bottom of surveys that test people’s trust in government and even democracy, as well as optimism about the future. The one below shows the current impact of immigration.

No surprise then that ‘populists’ are making waves: Bepe Grillo and his Five Star Movement in Italy, Marine Le Pen and the National Front in France.

Italians don’t appear to have had much faith in their institutions of government since the day they were set up after the war. And who can blame them? The corruption, mafia links and self-interest of the Italian political class for most of that period would have tested the patience of one of the country’s many saints. Despite this, modern Italy has been a remarkable success… how the heck did the country stay so wealthy for so long with such a venal government in Rome?

But people don’t like where the country is heading, and in recent years, Italy has suffered a procession of potential political saviours from left and right, each promising that he had the answers. Political parties as institutions have become almost irrelevant; it’s the hero politician that counts. Silvio Berlusconi was the epitome of hope in an individual placed ahead of the reality of his pretty obvious flaws, but Romano Prodi and Mario Monti also tried to rise above the failed institutions and appeal directly to the people.

The choice of Matteo Renzi was an attempt at a different formula - a technocratic figurehead for a change - and he identified Italy’s institutional structure as a major factor in its political weakness, hence the referendum on constitutional reform. But the result was the same; heroic failure.

[As the character David Brent is fond of saying, there’s no ‘I’ in team. So, maybe the mistake the Italians are making is always picking leaders whose name ends with ‘I’… and men. The new man? Paolo Gentolini. Same as the old men!]

In France, the major parties are torn asunder by splits and spats, with the spectre of the ‘populist’ National Front the only thing that unites them. That can’t last forever. At some point the people will take the populist option and turn to The Lady if the others don’t get their act together and deliver the jobs, security and hope they crave.

The mainstream everywhere are afraid of populism because the rise of the populists is the clearest sign that they, and their institutions, are failing.

David Cameron recently blamed Remain's defeat in the EU referendum, in part, on populism. My view, for what it’s worth, is that populism wasn’t the deciding factor.

Yes, the referendum was called because of a popular uprising within Cameron’s Conservative Party that was exploited by UKIP and its ‘populist’ leader, Nigel Farage. And, yes, the Leave campaign was led by Britain’s most popular politician, Boris Johnson, with an appeal based on exploiting fears of rising immigration and Turkish membership of the EU as well as ‘taking back control’.

But the referendum battle itself turned on an existential face-off.

The problems the voters faced were the same whether the UK remained in the EU or left. They therefore had to decide which they trusted the most to tackle them: Britain’s democratic institutions, with a thousand years of history behind them, or an unelected offshore institution with mere decades of existence.

Britons put their faith in the ancient over the modern.

Populism isn't popular right now

politicsstuff

With the benefit of hindsight

You say tom-ah-toh

Jumping the gun