216-457: The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations and
432-608: A presidential election in 2012 regarded as free and fair by election observers, and was subsequently sworn in before judges at the Supreme Constitutional Court . Fresh protests against Morsi erupted in Egypt on 22 November 2012. More protests against Morsi's rule occurred one year into Morsi's presidency in June 2013, and on 3 July 2013, the military overthrew Morsi's government , thus removing him from office. The Arab Spring
648-477: A "campaign of intimidation". More than 2,929 people have been arrested, and at least five people died due to torture while in police custody. On 23 November 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released its report on its investigation of the events, finding that the government had systematically tortured prisoners and committed other human rights violations. It also rejected
864-505: A "day of rage", usually Friday afternoon prayers. The protests also triggered similar unrest outside the region . Contrary to expectations the revolutions were not led by Islamists: Even though the Islamists were certainly present during the uprisings, they never determined the directions of these movements—after all, there was hardly any central leadership in any of the uprisings. Some Islamist groups initially were even reluctant to join in
1080-565: A Revolution by Ruaridh Arrow which premiered in Boston on 18 September was screened in Occupy camps across the US and Europe. Sharp himself warned that many of the tactics the movement were employing were not effective. In an Al Jazeera interview, he said, "The [Occupy] protesters don't have a clear objective, something they can actually achieve. If they think they will change the economic system by simply staying in
1296-664: A billboard for the Occupy movement. On the other side is 31 ft of graphics in support for Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks. On 5 November, protesters held "Bank Transfer Day", marching on banks and other financial institutions to urge Americans to move their money from big corporate banks to smaller community credit unions. It was reported that an estimated 600,000 people took their money out of major banks. On 11 November, Remembrance Day in Canada, police forcibly removed tents from Victoria Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia and arrested 15 protestors. On
1512-690: A challenge in that they now represent a new elite. In such cases—like Chávez in Venezuela and Vladimír Mečiar in Slovakia—populists retain their anti-establishment rhetoric by making changes to their concept of "the elite" to suit their new circumstances, alleging that real power is not held by the government but other powerful forces who continue to undermine the populist government and the will of "the people" itself. In these instances, populist governments often conceptualise "the elite" as those holding economic power . In Venezuela, for example, Chávez blamed
1728-461: A collective action—such as foment a political change. As of 5 April 2011 , the number of Facebook users in the Arab world surpassed 27.7 million people. Some critics have argued that digital technologies and other forms of communication—videos, cellular phones, blogs, photos, emails, and text messages—have brought about the concept of a "digital democracy" in parts of North Africa affected by
1944-549: A common cause. One of the ways that populists employ the understanding of "the people" is in the idea that "the people are sovereign", that in a democratic state governmental decisions should rest with the population and that if they are ignored then they might mobilise or revolt. This is the sense of "the people" employed in the late 19th century United States by the People's Party and which has also been used by later populist movements in that country. A second way in which "the people"
2160-564: A continuation of the Arab Spring. As of 2021 , multiple conflicts are still continuing that might be seen as a result of the Arab Spring. The Syrian Civil War has caused massive political instability and economic hardship in Syria, with the Syrian pound plunging to new lows. In Libya, a major civil war recently concluded, with foreign powers intervening. In Yemen, a civil war continues to affect
2376-424: A dichotomy between inclusionary and exclusionary forms, such as right-wing populists welcoming culturally proximate migrants with transnational solidarity. Populists (claim to) speak in the name of the 'oppressed people', and they want to emancipate them by making them aware of their oppression. However, they do not want to change their values or their 'way of life.' This is fundamentally different from, for example,
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#17328584574332592-718: A discourse, ideology, or worldview. These definitions were initially employed largely in Western Europe, although later became increasingly popular in Eastern Europe and the Americas. According to this approach, populism is viewed as a "thin ideology" or "thin-centred ideology" which on its own is seen as too insubstantial to provide a blueprint for societal change. It thus differs from the "thick-centred" or "full" ideologies such as fascism , liberalism , and socialism, which provide more far-reaching ideas about social transformation. As
2808-414: A family of related concepts rather than as a single concept in itself. The confusion surrounding the term has led some scholars to suggest that it should be abandoned by scholarship. In contrast to this view, the political scientists Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser stated that "while the frustration is understandable, the term populism is too central to debates about politics from Europe to
3024-683: A given society, populists often exclude both themselves and those sympathetic to their cause even when they too are in positions of power. For instance, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), a right-wing populist group, regularly condemned "the media" in Austria for defending "the elite", but excluded from that the Kronen Zeitung , a widely read tabloid that supported the FPÖ and its leader Jörg Haider . When populists take governmental power, they are faced with
3240-554: A global protest on 15 October . A list of events for 15 October included 951 cities in 82 countries. On 15 October events were held in many cities worldwide. On 17 September 2011, 1,000 protesters gathered in lower Manhattan walking up and down Wall Street. About 100 to 200 people stayed overnight in Zucotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street. By 19 September, seven people had been arrested. At least 80 arrests were made on 24 September after protesters started marching uptown and forcing
3456-464: A gory image of a headless 6-year-old girl on your Facebook news feed." In the months leading up to events in Tunisia, Department of Homeland Security , Customs and Border Protection , Communications Program Manager Jonathan Stevens predicted the use of "collaborative Internet utilities" to effect governmental change. In his thesis, Webeaucracy: The Collaborative Revolution Archived 28 February 2019 at
3672-570: A group swarmed the ICE facility in SoHo , causing it to shut down temporarily. In Oregon, hundreds of Occupy ICE activists took over a portion of the grounds of the Portland ICE building. The blockade caused the building to shut down for several days, with ICE staff citing "safety concerns". On 25 June, Feds ordered the protesters to vacate government environs or face arrest. On 28 June 2018, Federal officers moved in
3888-505: A highly emotional manner, or with political opportunism, to characterise politicians who exploit problems and seek to please voters without rational consideration as to the best course of action. Some scholars have linked populist policies to adverse economic outcomes, as "economic disintegration, decreasing macroeconomic stability, and the erosion of institutions typically go hand in hand with populist rule." Although frequently used by historians, social scientists, and political commentators,
4104-451: A homogeneous/pure people, or that it takes shape socially as an ideology. These assumptions can be counter-productive to the study of populism which has arguably become excessively conceptually deductive. Still, this does not mean we cannot come to a more minimal, formal definition of what populism is that can consensually group scholars and open up research to a broader scope, as indicated by Stavrakakis and De Cleen in defining populism as
4320-446: A major Arab movement towards democratization . The term "Arab Spring" is thus contested as it signifies an expectation that the events would replicate the example of democratic revolutions set by the West. Lastly, the term “Arab” is contested as well as it homogenises the region’s cultural specificities and oversimplifies the nature of its diverse histories and cultures. The world watched
4536-405: A movement to assist home owners who had lost or were scheduled to lose their homes due to foreclosure as a result of what they called the illegal practices used by banks that took advantage of consumers. The group planned to occupy foreclosed homes, disrupt bank auctions, and block evictions. The movement has been described as having an "overriding commitment" to participatory democracy . Much of
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#17328584574334752-540: A much stricter sense, generally being focused on a particular sociocultural group and antagonistic against minority groups. However, this is not exactly a pure dichotomy—exclusive populists can still give voice to those who feel marginalised by the political status quo and include minorities if it is advantageous, while inclusive populists can vary significantly in how inclusive they actually are. In addition, all populisms are implicitly exclusionary, since they define "the people" against "the elite", thus some scholars argue that
4968-414: A number of demographic structural factors, such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within the entire population. Catalysts for the revolts in all Northern African and Persian Gulf countries included the concentration of wealth in the hands of monarchs in power for decades, insufficient transparency of its redistribution, corruption, and especially the refusal of the youth to accept
5184-537: A number of issues. In February 2008, US Ambassador Robert Ford wrote in a leaked diplomatic cable that Algeria is "unhappy" with long-standing political alienation; that social discontent persisted throughout the country, with food strikes occurring almost every week; that there were demonstrations every day somewhere in the country; and that the Algerian government was corrupt and fragile. Some claimed that during 2010 there were as many as "9,700 riots and unrests" throughout
5400-657: A particular location, then they are likely to be very disappointed. Protest alone accomplishes very little." In late May 2011, sociologist Manuel Castells congratulated Spanish occupiers for the fact that not a single violent incident had been reported after 11 days of camping all over Spain. Castells said that nonviolence was of fundamental importance, and was echoed by various other sociologists and social historians including Lester Kurtz, Prof. Maurice Isserman and Prof. Tom Juravich . Juravich and others have, however, said that conflict can be important in attracting attention, with much to be gained if occupiers are seen as victims of
5616-490: A peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions in the 2007–2008 financial crisis . Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn registered the OccupyWallStreet.org web address on 9 June. According to Micah White , the senior editor of the magazine, "[we] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our [email list] and it
5832-402: A pejorative sense have subsequently embraced the term while seeking to shed it of negative connotations. The French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen for instance was often accused of populism and eventually responded by stating that "Populism precisely is taking into account the people's opinion. Have people the right, in a democracy, to hold an opinion? If that is the case, then yes, I am
6048-618: A populist." Similarly, on being founded in 2003, the centre-left Lithuanian Labour Party declared: "we are and will be called populists." Following 2016, the year which saw the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union —both events linked to populism—the word populism became one of the most widely used terms by international political commentators. In 2017,
6264-636: A resolution stating its informal support of the Occupy movement. In October 2012, Andy Haldane the Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England stated that the protesters were right to criticise and had persuaded bankers and politicians "to behave in a more moral way". In 2009 and 2010, students across the University of California occupied campus buildings in protest against budget cuts, tuition hikes, and staff cutbacks that had resulted from
6480-551: A series of conflicts during the three years leading up to the Arab Spring, the most notable occurring in the mining area of Gafsa in 2008, where protests continued for many months. These protests included rallies, sit-ins, and strikes, during which there were two fatalities, an unspecified number of wounded, and dozens of arrests. In Egypt , the labor movement had been strong for years, with more than 3000 labor actions since 2004, and provided an important venue for organizing protests and collective action. One important demonstration
6696-403: A single bull horn could not reasonably communicate a message to 700 demonstrators". On 5 October 2011, joined by union members, students, and the unemployed, the demonstration swelled to the largest yet with an estimated 15,000 marchers joining the protest. Smaller protests continued in cities and on college campuses across the country. Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through
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6912-432: A synonym for "the nation", whether that national community be conceived in either ethnic or civic terms. In such a framework, all individuals regarded as being "native" to a particular state, either by birth or by ethnicity, could be considered part of "the people". Left and right populists ... both regard representative democracy as being captivated by political elites and powerful interest groups. However, populists of
7128-474: A system that can be traced in part to the Quaker movement several centuries ago, to participatory democracy in ancient Athens , and to the spokescouncils of the 1999 anti-globalization movement . At the assemblies, working group proposals are made to meeting participants, who comment upon them using a process called a stack ; a queue of speakers that anyone can join. In New York City, Occupy Wall Street uses what
7344-422: A table on the plaza of Portland's City Hall and lit a candle, igniting a Prayer Vigil/Occupation of City Hall that lasted 18 months. On 22 December The Washington Post reported that some of the cities which had forcefully disbanded occupy camps were now facing legal challenges. On 2 January 2012, Occupy Nigeria began, sparked by Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan announcing the ending of fuel subsidies in
7560-579: A thin-centred ideology, populism is therefore attached to a thick-ideology by populist politicians. Thus, populism can be found merged with forms of nationalism, liberalism, socialism, federalism , or conservatism. According to Stanley, "the thinness of populism ensures that in practice it is a complementary ideology: it does not so much overlap with as diffuse itself throughout full ideologies." Populism is, according to Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, "a kind of mental map through which individuals analyse and comprehend political reality". Mudde noted that populism
7776-515: A three-month state of emergency on 15 March and asked the military to reassert its control as clashes spread across the country. On 16 March, armed soldiers and riot police cleared the protesters' camp in the Pearl Roundabout, in which 3 policemen and 3 protesters were reportedly killed. Later, on 18 March, the government tore down Pearl Roundabout monument. After the lifting of emergency law on 1 June, several large rallies were staged by
7992-468: A trap and then arresting them. In June 2012, a federal judge ruled that the protesters had not received sufficient warning of arrest pending entrance onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Although video evidence showed the police warning protesters by bullhorn, after reviewing it, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sided with plaintiffs, saying, "a reasonable officer in the noisy environment defendants occupied would have known that
8208-516: A type of discourse ‘characterized by a people/elite distinction and the claim to speak in the name of "the people."’ As a result of the various different ideologies with which populism can be paired, the forms that populism can take vary widely. Populism itself cannot be positioned on the left–right political spectrum , and both right and left-wing populisms exist. Populist movements can also mix divisions between left and right, for instance by combining xenophobic attitudes commonly associated with
8424-464: A very high level of Internet usage (such as Bahrain with 88% of its population online in 2011) and in states with some of the lowest Internet penetration ( Yemen and Libya ). The use of social media platforms more than doubled in Arab countries during the protests, with the exception of Libya. Some researchers have shown how collective intelligence , dynamics of the crowd in participatory systems such as social media, has immense power to support
8640-653: A wide array of political actors". The political scientist Ben Stanley noted that "although the meaning of the term has proven controversial in the literature, the persistence with which it has recurred suggests the existence at least of an ineliminable core: that is, that it refers to a distinct pattern of ideas." Political scientist David Art argues that the concept of populism brings together disparate phenomena in an unhelpful manner, and ultimately obscures and legitimizes figures who are more comprehensively defined as nativists and authoritarians. Although academic definitions of populism have differed, most of them have focused on
8856-435: Is "a strong and sincere mea culpa " and that his criticism of Middle East experts for "underestimating the hidden forces driving change ... while they worked instead to explain the unshakable stability of repressive authoritarian regimes" is well-placed. Toledano then quotes Gause saying, "As they wipe the egg off their faces," those experts "need to reconsider long-held assumptions about the Arab world." Tunisia experienced
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9072-616: Is "moralistic rather than programmatic". It encourages a binary world-view in which everyone is divided into "friends and foes", with the latter being regarded not just as people who have "different priorities and values" but as being fundamentally "evil". In emphasising one's purity against the corruption and immorality of "the elite", from which "the people" must remain pure and untouched, populism prevents compromise between different groups. The incredible rise in research and discussion about populism, both academic and social, stems largely from efforts by ideational scholars to place centre stage
9288-424: Is a political slogan used by participants in the Occupy movement. It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011. It refers to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent; the top 1 percent of income earners nearly tripled their after-tax income over the last thirty years, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report
9504-455: Is a product of "an antagonistic relationship" between "the people" and "the elite", and is "latent wherever the possibility occurs for the emergence of such a dichotomy". The political scientist Manuel Anselmi proposed that populism be defined as featuring a "homogeneous community-people" which "perceives itself as the absolute holder of popular sovereignty" and "expresses an anti-establishment attitude." This understanding conceives of populism as
9720-541: Is a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of the common people and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite group. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties and movements since that time, often as a pejorative . Within political science and other social sciences , several different definitions of populism have been employed, with some scholars proposing that
9936-457: Is called a progressive stack , in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitators , or stack-keepers, urging speakers to "step forward, or step back" based on which group they belong to, meaning that women and minorities get to go to the front of the line, while white males must often wait for a turn to speak. The progressive stack concept has been criticized by some outside
10152-429: Is conceived by populists combines a socioeconomic or class based category with one that refers to certain cultural traditions and popular values. The concept seeks to vindicate the dignity of a social group who regard themselves as being oppressed by a dominant "elite" who are accused of treating "the people's" values, judgements, and tastes with suspicion or contempt. A third use of "the people" by populists employs it as
10368-629: Is much more commonly said to have begun in New York during September. On 30 May 2011, a leader of the Indignados , inspired by the Arab Spring , 5.18 Movement of 1980, and June Democracy Movement of 1987 called for a worldwide protest on 15 October . In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation , best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters , proposed
10584-632: Is raising money to retire "zombie debt," debt, such as medical bills, that the individual cannot re-pay, Occupy University, which has developed and made accessible free educational materials, and the Debt Collective , a successor of Strike Debt, worked to get students of a fraudulent for-profit college absolved of their debt with some success. On 3 April 2016, hundreds of supporters of Bernie Sanders protested outside of CNN's Headquarters in Los Angeles . Sanders supporters were protesting CNN 's coverage of
10800-632: Is rare given that the "people" and "elite" are typically of the same ethnicity. For some populist leaders and movements, the term "the elite" also refers to an academic or intellectual establishment and, as such, entails scholars, intellectuals, experts, or organized science as a whole. Such leaders and movements may criticise scientific knowledge as abstract, useless, and ideologically biased, and instead demand common sense , experiential knowledge, and practical solutions to be "true knowledge". Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( Arabic : الربيع العربي , romanized : ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī ) or
11016-411: Is seen to favour, such as immigrants, homosexuals, travellers, or communists. Populist leaders thus "come in many different shades and sizes" but, according to Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, share one common element: "a carefully crafted image of the vox populi ". Stanley expressed the view that although there are "certain family resemblances" that can be seen between populist groups and individuals, there
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#173285845743311232-628: Is symbolically significant as the birthplace of the British Empire, and the encampment is seen by some protesters to represent an occupation of colonialism vis-a-vis its birth site. There are currently a number of court proceedings across Canada on whether or not the eviction of protestors and violence from police is an infringement of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Around 800 student protestors began occupying universities across Colombia on 12 November 2011. Populist Populism
11448-425: Is that it is in an "adversarial relationship" with "the people". In defining "the elite", populists often condemn not only the political establishment, but also the economic elite, cultural elite, academic elite, and the media elite, which they present as one homogeneous, corrupt group. In early 21st century India, the populist Bharatiya Janata Party for instance accused the dominant Indian National Congress party,
11664-636: The Cambridge Dictionary declared it the Word of the Year . Until the 1950s, use of the term populism remained restricted largely to historians studying the People's Party, but in 1954 the US sociologist Edward Shils published an article proposing populism as a term to describe anti-elite trends in US society more broadly. Following on from Shils' article, during the 1960s the term "populism" became increasingly popular among sociologists and other academics in
11880-622: The Western Sahara . A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! ( Arabic : الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام , lit. 'the people want to bring down the regime'). The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid to late 2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities, pro-government militias, counterdemonstrators, and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases. Multiple large-scale conflicts followed:
12096-468: The 2016 United States presidential elections , specifically in regard to the amount of airtime Sanders has received. Known as Occupy CNN, protestors are claiming that major media networks have intentionally blacked out Sanders' presidential campaign in favor of giving much more airtime to candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump . In Switzerland, the Occupy spirit lives on by annual online and offline celebrations each year on 17 September in
12312-577: The Communist Party of India , NGOs, academia, and the English-language media of all being part of "the elite". When operating in liberal democracies, populists often condemn dominant political parties as part of "the elite" but at the same time do not reject the party political system altogether, instead either calling for or claiming to be a new kind of party different from the others. Although condemning almost all those in positions of power within
12528-1156: The First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring ) was a series of anti-government protests , uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation . From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya , Egypt , Yemen , Syria and Bahrain . Rulers were deposed ( Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco , Iraq , Algeria , Lebanon , Jordan , Kuwait , Oman and Sudan . Minor protests took place in Djibouti , Mauritania , Palestine , Saudi Arabia and
12744-535: The Great Recession may have had a hand as well. Some activists had taken part in programs sponsored by the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy , but the US government claimed that they did not initiate the uprisings. Numerous factors led to the protests, including issues such as reform, human rights violations, political corruption , economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and
12960-423: The Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007,
13176-583: The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) reached a tentative agreement, mediated by Washington state governor Christine Gregoire . The agreement resolved a year-long dispute, paving the way for ILWU Local 21 workers to work inside the $ 200 million grain terminal at the Port of Longview in south-west Washington state . This came after "Occupy the Ports" protests which shut down multiple ports on
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#173285845743313392-658: The Syrian civil war ; the rise of ISIL , insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war ; the Egyptian Crisis , election and removal from office of Mohamed Morsi , and subsequent unrest and insurgency ; the Libyan Crisis ; and the Yemeni crisis and subsequent civil war . Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change. A power struggle continued after
13608-588: The Tunisian Revolution protests. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown on 23 August 2011, after the National Transitional Council (NTC) took control of Bab al-Azizia . He was killed on 20 October 2011 in his hometown of Sirte after the NTC took control of
13824-499: The Wayback Machine , Stevens put forth that unlike writing, printing, and telecommunications, "collaborative Internet utilities" denote a sea-change in the ability of crowds to effect social change. People and collaborative Internet utilities can be described as actor-networks; the subitizing limit (and history) suggests people left to their own devices cannot fully harness the mental power of crowds. Metcalfe's law suggests that as
14040-483: The global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability. The first Occupy protest to receive widespread attention, Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park , Lower Manhattan , began on 17 September 2011. By 9 October, Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 951 cities across 82 countries, and in over 600 communities in
14256-401: The left–right political spectrum , and there exist both left-wing populism and right-wing populism . Other scholars of the social sciences have defined the term populism differently. According to the popular agency definition used by some historians of United States history, populism refers to popular engagement of the population in political decision-making. An approach associated with
14472-564: The monarchy . Lingering frustration among the Shiite majority with being ruled by the Sunni government was a major root cause, but the protests in Tunisia and Egypt are cited as the inspiration for the demonstrations. The protests were largely peaceful until a pre-dawn raid by police on 17 February to clear protestors from Pearl Roundabout in Manama , in which police killed four protesters. Following
14688-472: The social sciences . In 1967 a Conference on Populism was held at the London School of Economics , the participants of which failed to agree on a clear, single definition. As a result of this scholarly interest, an academic field known as "populism studies" emerged. Interest in the subject grew rapidly: between 1950 and 1960 about 160 publications on populism appeared, while between 1990 and 2000 that number
14904-644: The "Church of the Left". In some instances, particularly in Latin America and Africa, "the elites" are conceived not just in economic but also in ethnic terms, representing what political scientists have termed ethnopopulism . In Bolivia, for example, the left-wing populist leader Evo Morales juxtaposed the mestizo and indigenous "people" against an overwhelmingly European "elite", declaring that "We Indians [i.e. indigenous people] are Latin America's moral reserve". In
15120-816: The "biggest transformation of the Middle East since decolonization". By the end of February 2012, rulers had been forced from power in Tunisia , Egypt , Libya , and Yemen ; civil uprisings had erupted in Bahrain and Syria ; major protests had broken out in Algeria , Iraq , Jordan , Kuwait , Morocco , Oman , and Sudan ; and minor protests had occurred in Mauritania , Saudi Arabia , Djibouti , Western Sahara , and Palestine . Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011 following
15336-460: The "revolutionary potential of [the students'] struggle". The Spanish Indignados movement began in mid-May 2011, with camps at Madrid and elsewhere. According to sociologist Manuel Castells , by the end of the month there were already hundreds of camps around Spain and across the world. For some journalists and commentators the camping in Spain marked the start of the global occupy movement, though it
15552-422: The (early) socialists, who want(ed) to 'uplift the workers' by re-educating them, thereby liberating them from their 'false consciousness'. For populists, on the other hand, the consciousness of the people, generally referred to as common sense, is the basis of all good (politics). Political scientist Cas Mudde For populists, "the people" are presented as being homogeneous, and also virtuous. In simplifying
15768-717: The 1990s, populism was often associated with politicians like Peru's Alberto Fujimori who promoted neoliberal economics, while in the 2000s it was instead associated with those like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez who promoted socialist programs. As well as populists of the left and right, populist figures like Italy's Beppe Grillo have been characterised as centrist and liberal , while groups like Turkey's Justice and Development Party have been described as combining populism with Islamism , and India's Bharatiya Janata Party has been seen as mixing populism with Hindu nationalism . Although populists of different ideological traditions can oppose each other, they can also form coalitions, as
15984-435: The 2008 crash, and form a presidential commission to investigate and prosecute corruption in politics. According to Bloomberg Businessweek , protesters wanted more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. The movement has also been described as broadly anticapitalist . Some commentators such as David Graeber and Judith Butler criticized
16200-1096: The 99 percent." Protests were largely peaceful; however, a protest in Rome that drew thousands turned violent. Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Times Square in New York City and rallied for several hours. Several hundred protesters were arrested across the U.S., mostly for refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas. In Chicago there were 175 arrests, about 100 arrests in Arizona (53 in Tucson , 46 in Phoenix), and more than 70 in New York City, including at least 40 in Times Square. Multiple arrests were reported in Chicago, and about 150 people camped out by city hall in Minneapolis. In
16416-475: The Americas to simply do away with." Similarly, Canovan noted that the term "does have comparatively clear and definite meanings in a number of specialist areas" and that it "provides a pointer, however shaky, to an interesting and largely unexplored area of political and social experience". The political scientists Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell thought that "if carefully defined, the term 'populism' can be used profitably to help us understand and explain
16632-603: The Arab Spring in North Africa . During this period, several leaders announced their intentions to step down at the end of their current terms. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that he would not seek reelection in 2015 (he ultimately retracted his announcement and ran anyway), as did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , whose term was to end in 2014, although there were violent demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation in 2011. Protests in Jordan also caused
16848-613: The Arab Spring, people created pages on Facebook to raise awareness about alleged crimes against humanity, such as police brutality in the Egyptian Revolution (see Wael Ghonim and Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed ). Whether the project of raising awareness was primarily pursued by Arabs themselves or simply advertised by Western social media users is a matter of debate. Jared Keller, a journalist for The Atlantic , claims that most activists and protesters used Facebook (among other social media) to organize; however, what influenced Iran
17064-580: The Bolivian case, this was not accompanied by a racially exclusionary approach, but with an attempt to build a pan-ethnic coalition which included European Bolivians against the largely European Bolivian elite. In South Africa, the populist Julius Malema has presented black South Africans as the "people" whom he claims to represent, calling for the expropriation of land owned by the white minority without compensation. In areas like Europe where nation-states are more ethnically homogeneous, this ethnopopulist approach
17280-451: The Egyptian government attempted, somewhat successfully, to eliminate the nation's Internet access, in order to inhibit the protesters' ability to use media activism to organize through social media . Later that day, as tens of thousands protested on the streets of Egypt's major cities, President Hosni Mubarak dismissed his government, later appointing a new cabinet. Mubarak also appointed
17496-635: The Financial District. The march was mostly peaceful—until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting. Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, British protesters organized an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to bring attention to what they saw as unethical behavior on
17712-613: The Great Recession of 2008. According to Dissent Magazine , "It was in the context of the California student movement that the slogan 'Occupy Everything, Demand Nothing' first emerged." The Huffington Post noted that, "During one incident in March of 2010, 150 protesters were arrested for trying to occupy part of Interstate 80 in protest of the budget cuts and tuition hikes, displaying a banner that read 'Occupy everything,' while shutting down
17928-682: The Groenplaats, next to the cathedral. About 150–200 people attended a speaker's corner. The left-wing socialist party (PVDA) was present and served free soup as well as information about its proposed "millionaires' tax". There have been four Occupy protests in Leuven . Three took place on the Grand Market in the centre of the city and one took place at a building of the city's Catholic university. The number of protesters in these rallies varied from 100 to 250. These protests have not included prolonged camping, but
18144-505: The Mediterranean coast. On 17 March, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 was adopted, authorising a no-fly zone over Libya, and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. Two days later, France, the United States and the United Kingdom intervened in Libya with a bombing campaign against pro-Gaddafi forces. A coalition of 27 states from Europe and the Middle East soon joined
18360-560: The Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement), a local entity that advocates for free public transportation. During a 2015 movement "Ocupe Estelita", a police officer was suspended for shooting protesters with rubber bullets for knocking off his cap. Occupy protests have taken place in at least 20 Canadian cities since 15 October 2011. On that day, 5,000 people gathered in Vancouver to protest perceived social injustice, while 150 stayed
18576-582: The New York branch of the movement did initially accept protestors who had not signed up to nonviolence. In September, sympathetic coverage given to the movement by the media was substantially increased after the circulation of a video of pepper spray being used by a police commander against peaceful female protestors. In early October, Naomi Klein congratulated New York occupiers for their commitment to nonviolence. By November 2011, media sources began to report an increase in violence, with allegations of sexual assault and incidents of violence from occupiers against
18792-520: The Occupy Movement organized the Occupy ICE phase in order to protest the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office regarding the detention of undocumented immigrants presenting themselves at the southern US border points to seek asylum. While small groups of protesters emerged across the country in protest against the separation of families who were detained during immigration processing,
19008-469: The Occupy movement and academia. In the US, universities including Columbia and Roosevelt have begun offering courses about the movement, in the case of Columbia the course includes field work where students join in with Occupy activities. In Great Britain, Occupy's outwork teams are planning school visits to give talks about the movement and related issues. On 23 January, EGT LLC (Export Grain Terminal) and
19224-525: The Ogawa Plaza encampment. During this confrontation, protester Scott Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, suffered a skull fracture caused by a tear-gas projectile or smoke canister fired by police. By 29 October 2011, there were around 2,300 Occupy protest camps across around 2,000 cities worldwide. On 2 November, protesters in Oakland, California , shut down the Port of Oakland , the fifth busiest port in
19440-577: The Robin Hood tax planned for 29 October. Naomi Wolf argued that the impression created by much of the media that the protestors did not have clear demands was false. Wolf argued that they did have clear demands including a desire to end what they saw as the corrupting effect of money on politics. The New Yorker magazine stated that the claims of Kalle Lasn and Micah M. White were specific: tighten banking-industry regulations, ban high-frequency trading , arrest all 'financial fraudsters' responsible for
19656-454: The Saudi government during this time. He was murdered by the government a few years later. Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and prior to his entry as a central figure in Egyptian politics, potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei warned of a "Tunisia-style explosion" in Egypt. Protests in Egypt began on 25 January 2011 and ran for 18 days. Beginning around midnight on 28 January,
19872-619: The U.S., including New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Los Angeles. This included a revival of the Free University of New York . The longest US "re-occupation" started on 1 December 2011, when evicted activists from the Occupy Portland camp set up a table on the plaza of Portland's City Hall and lit a candle, igniting the 24/7 Prayer Vigil to Lift the Camping Ban , referring to the city's anti-"camping" ordinances that were cited during
20088-563: The US political journal Foreign Policy . Political scientist Marc Lynch described Arab Spring as "a term I may have unintentionally coined in a 6 January 2011 article" for Foreign Policy magazine. Protestors involved in the events however described their own political actions as "uprising" ( intifada ), Arab "awakening" ( sahwa ) and Arab "renaissance" ( nahda ), using expressions like al-marar al-Arabi (the Arab bitterness), karama (dignity) and thawra (revolution). Some authors argue that western governments, scholars and media used
20304-504: The United Nations Development Program concluded that "social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success." Marc Lynch of George Washington University said, "while social media boosters envisioned
20520-436: The United States . Although the movement became most active in the United States, by October 2011 Occupy protests and occupations had started in dozens of other countries across every widely inhabited continent. For the first month, overt police repression remained minimal, but this began to change by 25 October 2011, when police first attempted to forcibly remove Occupy Oakland . By the end of 2011 authorities had cleared most of
20736-688: The Year ". Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo award for his image of a Yemeni woman holding an injured family member, taken during the civil uprising in Yemen on 15 October 2011. Overthrow of Mohamed Morsi , who was convicted of espionage and inciting the killing of protestors. Yemeni crisis begins, followed by a civil war Start of War in Iraq (2014–2017) (combined estimate of events) The protests in Bahrain started on 14 February , and were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and respect for human rights ; they were not intended to directly threaten
20952-634: The activists regarding the protection of their whereabouts. Western countries are perceived to have generally overlooked these issues, including the United States , France , and several other European countries. The founder of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC believed that even ten years after the Arab Spring, Egypt was at its lowest for human rights. Anti-government protests began in Libya on 15 February 2011. By 18 February,
21168-600: The city authorities. The place of protests was promptly dubbed "Mashtots park" – a name under which it is now widely known by the Armenian society. Armenak Dovlatyan, Leader of the Greens party, believed that the "Occupy" demonstrations were the most successful civic action in the history of Armenia. "Occupy" demonstrations took place in Canberra , Wollongong , Perth , Sydney , Brisbane , and Melbourne , as well as smaller towns around
21384-573: The city. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the GCC power-transfer deal in which a presidential election was held, resulting in his successor Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi formally replacing him as president on 27 February 2012 in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Weapons and Tuareg fighters returning from the Libyan Civil War stoked a simmering conflict in Mali that has been described as 'fallout' from
21600-527: The closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers also used a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups. Videos which showed several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray by a police official were widely disseminated, sparking controversy. That police official, later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna,
21816-518: The common use of the term Populism to refer to far-right nativism and racism, noting that the original People's Party was relatively liberal on the rights of women and minorities by the standards of the time. The V-Party Dataset assesses populism as anti-elitism and people-centrism. A thin-centred ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic camps, "the pure people" versus "the corrupt elite", and which argues that politics should be an expression of
22032-427: The complexities of reality, the concept of "the people" is vague and flexible, with this plasticity benefitting populists who are thus able to "expand or contract" the concept "to suit the chosen criteria of inclusion or exclusion" at any given time. In employing the concept of "the people", populists can encourage a sense of shared identity among different groups within a society and facilitate their mobilisation toward
22248-625: The concept after the Days of Rage being held at that time in the Middle East and North Africa . Early promotion by the WikiLeaks Twitter and blog was reported as being instrumental in the group's success. It was renamed Occupy Wall Street after the idea publicized on an email list on 13 July 2011 by Vancouver-based non-profit Canadian group Adbusters . The Occupy Wall Street protests began on 17 September 2011 in downtown Manhattan. On 9 October 2011, activists in cities in over 25 countries repeated calls for
22464-476: The constraint of the trademark Occupy tactics." These campaigns include Occupy Sandy which has provided needed relief to the New York area since Hurricane Sandy hit, Occupy London 's Occupy Economics group that hosted, and was praised by the Bank of England 's Executive Director for Financial Stability, Occupy the SEC , which monitors US financial regulatory matters, The Rolling Jubilees program of Strike Debt , which
22680-441: The country. In Lebanon, a major banking crisis is threatening the country's economy as well as that of neighboring Syria. The denomination “Arab Spring” is contested by some scholars and observers claiming that the term is problematic for several reasons. First, it was coined by Western commentators, not those involved in the events. The first specific use of the term Arab Spring as used to denote these events may have started with
22896-554: The country. Many protests focused on issues such as education and health care, while others cited rampant corruption. In Western Sahara, the Gdeim Izik protest camp was erected 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of El Aaiún by a group of young Sahrawis on 9 October 2010. Their intention was to demonstrate against labor discrimination, unemployment, looting of resources, and human rights abuses. The camp contained between 12 000 and 20 000 inhabitants, but on 8 November 2010 it
23112-669: The country. At the Occupy Melbourne protest on 21 October 2011, approximately 150 protesters defied police orders to clear the area and were subsequently removed with force. 95 arrests were made, and 43 reports of police violence were filed. Occupiers returned the following day in a walk against police violence, re-occupying multiple sites since. Occupy Sydney had an ongoing occupation in Martin Place since their initial police eviction, marking almost 21 months in July 2013. The Occupy Sydney camp
23328-493: The country. There was support from the global movement, but most of the activity took place in Nigeria itself, with a report from CSM saying strikes were effectively shutting down whole cities. On 16 January Jonathan responded by announcing he would bring prices back down by partially restoring the fuel subsidy. While students have been involved with Occupy since its inception, early 2012 has seen increasing formal interaction between
23544-517: The creation of a new public sphere based on dialogue and mutual respect, the reality is that Islamists and their adversaries retreat to their respective camps, reinforcing each other's prejudices while throwing the occasional rhetorical bomb across the no-man's land that the center has become." Lynch also stated in a Foreign Policy article, "There is something very different about scrolling through pictures and videos of unified, chanting Yemeni or Egyptian crowds demanding democratic change and waking up to
23760-403: The delay in articulating a clear demand was given as the time it takes to reach a consensus with the sometimes slow processes of participatory democracy . In November "Occupy London Stock Exchange", an offshoot of Occupy London, said that they were working on a global collaboration of various occupations that reflected the voices of diverse movements worldwide. The global movement has been called
23976-469: The demonstrations, the Bahraini authorities are known to have accelerated their crackdown. They have been targeting human rights defenders, journalists, Shiite political groups and social media critics. Saudi government forces quashed protests in the country and assisted Bahraini authorities in suppressing demonstrations there. Jamal Khashoggi , a Saudi critic, covered the Arab spring and spoke out against
24192-435: The difference between populisms is not whether a particular populism excludes but whom it excludes from its conception of "the people". Anti-elitism is widely considered the central characteristic feature of populism, although Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser argued that anti-elitism alone was not evidence of populism. Rather, according to Stanley, in populist discourse the "fundamental distinguishing feature" of "the elite"
24408-576: The early morning hours of 25 October, police cleared and closed an Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. The raid was chaotic and violent, but Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan expressed his pleasure concerning the operation because neither the police nor the public suffered any injuries. A street march that afternoon protesting the closure culminated in a confrontation between police and protesters, who sought to re-establish
24624-513: The early morning to remove or arrest protesters blockading the building. Eight were arrested. On 19 August 2018, Occupy Kalamazoo began an encampment in Bronson Park to address homelessness. The group's efforts notably received support from local Commissioner Shannon Sykes, who criticized her colleagues in government for "failing to create more affordable housing." On 20 February 2012 near Margaryan Maternity Clinic, where kiosks were being built by
24840-467: The early weeks, the movement was frequently criticized by the news media for having no clearly defined goals. Speaking on 7 October 2011, Kalle Lasn of Adbusters said that, in the early stages, the lack of demands was the "mysterious part" that allowed the movement to grow. By late October, Adbusters had been trying to "rally it around a single, clear demand" for a Robin Hood tax , with a global march in support of
25056-540: The economic elite for frustrating his reforms, while in Greece, the left-wing populist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused "the lobbyists and oligarchs of Greece" of undermining his administration. In populist instances like these, the claims made have some basis in reality, as business interests seek to undermine leftist-oriented economic reform. Although left-wing populists who combine populist ideas with forms of socialism most commonly present "the elite" in economic terms,
25272-487: The elements causes sleep deprivation ; it is inhumane, unconstitutional, and amounts to torture. The activists said the prayer vigil would continue until "bedding matter" was again legal. The vigil was staffed around the clock until 23 July 2013, when Mayor Charlie Hales ordered the removal of the vigil and associated encampments on the abutting sidewalks. The Occupy movement has "already transformed beyond recognition from its original state" and "campaigns have emerged outside
25488-667: The end of 2011 as many Egyptians expressed concern about the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ' perceived sluggishness in instituting reforms and their grip on power. Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib el-Adly were sentenced to life in prison on the basis of their failure to stop the killings during the first six days of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. His successor, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist Mohamed Morsi , won
25704-552: The end of his 42 years of power. Many institutions of the government, including Gaddafi and several top government officials, regrouped in Sirte , which Gaddafi declared to be Libya's new capital. Others fled to Sabha , Bani Walid , and remote reaches of the Libyan Desert , or to surrounding countries. However, Sabha fell in late September, Bani Walid was captured after a grueling siege weeks later, and on 20 October, fighters under
25920-501: The event "vital" for the still nascent movement. On 1 October 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge . The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across. Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street said, "The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto
26136-454: The events of the Arab Spring unfold, "gripped by the narrative of a young generation peacefully rising up against oppressive authoritarianism to secure a more democratic political system and a brighter economic future". The Arab Spring is widely believed to have been instigated by dissatisfaction, particularly of youth and unions, with the rule of local governments, though some have speculated that wide gaps in income levels and pressures caused by
26352-464: The eviction. The activists claimed the laws, which prohibit the use of "bedding, sleeping bags, or other sleeping matter," are immoral and that they're obligated to challenge them. The occupiers claim that sleep is human right and is essential for mental, physical and emotional health, citing that human beings need to spend nearly a third of their lives sleeping. Prohibiting sleep by making it illegal for people to protect themselves and their belongings from
26568-455: The existing system, including many unemployed persons, political and human rights activists, labor and trade unionists, students, professors, lawyers, and others to begin the Tunisian Revolution . The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa that commenced in 2010 became known as the "Arab Spring", and sometimes as the "Arab Spring and Winter", "Arab Awakening", or "Arab Uprisings", even though not all
26784-417: The far-right British National Party conceived of the "native British people" as its heartland. Mudde noted that for populists, "the people" "are neither real nor all-inclusive, but are in fact a mythical and constructed sub-set of the whole population". They are an imagined community, much like the imagined communities embraced and promoted by nationalists. Populism often entails presenting "the people" as
27000-400: The far-right with redistributive economic policies closer to those of the left. [Populism's] core consists of four distinct but interrelated concepts: The ideational definition of populism used by Ben Stanley The ideologies with which populism can be paired can be contradictory, resulting in different forms of populism that can oppose each other. For instance, in Latin America during
27216-402: The first Vice President in almost 30 years. The U.S. embassy and international students began a voluntary evacuation near the end of January, as violence and rumors of violence escalated. On 10 February, Mubarak ceded all presidential power to Vice President Omar Suleiman , but soon thereafter announced that he would remain as president until the end of his term. However, protests continued
27432-510: The first major use of the term in English was by members of the left-leaning agrarian People's Party and its predecessors, which were active in the United States from around 1889 to 1909. The Russian and American movements differed in various respects. In the 1920s, the term entered the French language , where it was used to describe a group of writers expressing sympathy for ordinary people. As
27648-513: The front of City Hall in Prince George, British Columbia. Events have been concentrated in provincial urban areas, and there have yet to be any demonstrations in the territories of Yukon , Northwest Territories , or Nunavut . A relatively small group of occupiers successfully occupied Harbourside Park in St John's Newfoundland for the entire 2012 Winter season. This site, known also as "King's Beach"
27864-446: The general public and shine a light on the inequities and political injustice. OTR has been to every major Occupy Event in support of all occupied cities, traveling over 31,000 miles and visiting 42 States and 160 cities since inception. One side of the RV (named the "V"- from the chant "Whose V? RV") has been decorated with stickers, posters, and event notices from around the country representing
28080-515: The government's claims that the protests were instigated by Iran . Although the report found that systematic torture had stopped, the Bahraini government has refused entry to several international human rights groups and news organizations, and delayed a visit by a UN inspector . More than 80 people had died since the start of the uprising. Even a decade after the 2011 uprisings, the situation in Bahrain remained unchanged. The regime continued suppression against all forms of dissent. Years after
28296-516: The idea that it should reference some form of relationship between "the people" and "the elite", and that it entailed taking an anti-establishment stance. Beyond that, different scholars have emphasised different features that they wish to use to define populism. These differences have occurred both within specific scholarly disciplines and among different disciplines, varying for instance among scholars focusing on different regions and different historical periods. Author Thomas Frank has criticized
28512-481: The idea that the movement must have clearly defined demands; they argued that issuing demands is counterproductive for the Occupy movement, because doing so would legitimize the very power structures the movement seeks to challenge. In late November, the London contingent of the Occupy movement released their first statement on corporations, in which they called for measures to end tax evasion by wealthy firms. The reason for
28728-482: The immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states. The early hopes that these popular movements would end corruption, increase political participation, and bring about greater economic equity quickly collapsed in
28944-428: The income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. This is in stark contrast with surveys of U.S. populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality . During
29160-402: The intervention. The forces were driven back from the outskirts of Benghazi, and the rebels mounted an offensive , capturing scores of towns across the coast of Libya. The offensive stalled however, and a counter-offensive by the government retook most of the towns, until a stalemate was formed between Brega and Ajdabiya , the former being held by the government and the latter in the hands of
29376-493: The last three months of the study period. Responses to the movement from celebrities were both in-person and online. Some find it controversial that rich celebrities made appearances at the Occupy Wall Street Movement, but Kanye West justified his appearance as helping give power back to the people. Many hold that the success of OWS has led to the success of Bernie Sanders and his political platform, disrupting
29592-485: The limited role of social networks, such as Yemen and Libya , the role of mainstream electronic media devices—cellular phones, emails, and video clips (e.g., YouTube )—was very important to cast the light on the situation in the country and spread the word about the protests in the outside world. In Egypt , in Cairo particularly, mosques were one of the main platforms to coordinate the protest actions and raise awareness to
29808-470: The major camps, with the last remaining high-profile sites – in Washington, D.C. , and in London – evicted by February 2012. The Occupy movement took inspiration in part from the Arab Spring , from the 2009 Iranian Green Movement , and from the Spanish Indignados Movement, as well as from the overall global wave of anti-austerity protests of 2010 and following. The movement commonly used
30024-434: The masses. Conversely, scholarship literature on the Middle East, political scientist Gregory Gause has found, had failed to predict the events of the Arab uprisings. Commenting on an early article by Gause whose review of a decade of Middle Eastern studies led him to conclude that almost no scholar foresaw what was coming, Chair of Ottoman and Turkish Studies at Tel Aviv University Ehud R. Toledano writes that Gause's finding
30240-601: The movement as "forced equality" and "unfair". The occupy movement began with a commitment to nonviolence. Frequent references were made to the writings of nonviolent theorist Dr. Gene Sharp whose work was reported to have influenced nonviolent struggle movements in Serbia and the Arab Spring. Study groups were organised across the US Occupy camps discussing Sharp's 198 methods of nonviolent action and his book From Dictatorship to Democracy . A subsequent film about his work How to Start
30456-519: The movement outweighed those in opposition two to one. In late January, Occupy protested at the World Economic Forum . On 17 March, Occupy Wall Street attempted to mark six months of the movement, by reoccupying Zuccotti Park , the location of the first Occupy camp. Protestors were soon cleared away by police, who made over 70 arrests. On 1 May, the Occupy movement marked a resurgence with a May Day general strike that took place in cities across
30672-457: The movement's democratic process occurs in "working groups," where any protester is able to have their say. Important decisions are often made at General assemblies , which can themselves be informed by the findings of multiple working groups. Decisions are made using the consensus model of participatory democracy. This often features the use of hand signals to increase participation and operating with discussion facilitators rather than leaders –
30888-508: The movement, Financial Times journalist Shannon Bond found that issues of concern included: "the unemployment rate, household debt, student debt, the lack of prospects for people graduating from college and foreclosures". In the U.S., Occupy Homes joined with other existing human rights activists groups and began to occupy foreclosed homes, disrupt bank auctions, and block evictions. On 1 December, two evicted activists in Portland, Oregon, planted
31104-408: The movement. During a demonstration at UC Davis on 18 November 2011, campus police Lieutenant John Pike used pepper spray on seated students. The incident drew national attention and led to further demonstrations, petitions, and calls for Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to resign. (See: UC Davis pepper-spray incident ) On 22 November, occupiers mic checked President Obama to draw his attention to
31320-507: The nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city; however, a member of the Occupy movement was quoted by the BBC as estimating as many as 30,000 may have taken part. On 4 November 2011, "Occupy the Roads" (OTR) started traveling throughout the U.S. to bring the message of Occupy, in order to educate the people on various issues facing
31536-473: The next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15% —an example of the Pareto principle . Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%. However, after
31752-723: The next day, and Suleiman quickly announced that Mubarak had resigned from the presidency and transferred power to the Armed Forces of Egypt . The military immediately dissolved the Egyptian Parliament , suspended the Constitution of Egypt , and promised to lift the nation's thirty-year " emergency laws ". A civilian, Essam Sharaf , was appointed as Prime Minister of Egypt on 4 March to widespread approval among Egyptians in Tahrir Square . Violent protests, however, continued through
31968-654: The night in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery. 2,000 people marched in Toronto on 15 October and around 100 continued to occupy St James Park, and 1,000 gathered in Montreal to march down Ste-Catherine Street; 85 tents were set up in Victoria square. Beginning on 23 October 2011 approximately 40 people occupied Memorial Park on Minto Street in downtown Sudbury and still continue to do so. On 20 October 2011, over 100 people occupied
32184-469: The night of 14 November, a coordinated crackdown was undertaken by authorities around the world, with several camps being forcibly cleared including Zuccotti Park in New York, Oakland, Oregon, Denver and Zurich. For some of the other camps such as the one at St Pauls in London, no physical action was taken, but on 15 November authorities stepped up legal action to gain authorization for a forcible eviction. Financial Times editor Richard Lambert suggested that
32400-438: The number of nodes increases, the value of collaborative actor-networks increases quadratically; collaborative Internet utilities effectively increase the subitizing limit, and, at some macro scale, these interactive collaborative actor-networks can be described by the same rules that govern Parallel Distributed Processing , resulting in crowd sourcing that acts as a type of distributed collective consciousness. The Internet assumes
32616-530: The number of protestors at the Pearl Roundabout peaked at over 150 000 after more than 100 000 protesters marched there and were coming under fire from the Bahraini Military which killed around 20 and injured over 100 protestors. On 14 March, GCC forces (composed mainly of Saudi and UAE troops) were requested by the government and occupied the country. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared
32832-419: The opposition controlled most of Benghazi , the country's second-largest city. The government dispatched elite troops and militia in an attempt to recapture it, but they were repelled. By 20 February, protests had spread to the capital Tripoli , leading to a television address by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , who warned the protestors that their country could descend into civil war. The rising death toll, numbering in
33048-540: The opposition parties. Smaller-scale protests and clashes outside of the capital have continued to occur almost daily. On 9 March 2012, over 100 000 protested in what the opposition called "the biggest march in our history". The police response has been described as a "brutal" crackdown on peaceful and unarmed protestors, including doctors and bloggers. The police carried out midnight house raids in Shia neighbourhoods, beatings at checkpoints, and denial of medical care in
33264-517: The part of banks. One of the organizers of the protest said the protests were to be focused against "increasing social and economic injustice in this country". In his opinion, "the Government has made sure to maintain the status quo and let the people who caused this crisis get off scot-free, whilst conversely ensuring that the people of this country pay the price, in particular those most vulnerable." On 15 October 2011 global protests were staged around
33480-599: The participants in the protests were Arab . It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, following Mohamed Bouazizi 's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment. With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest sparked by the Tunisian "Burning Man" struck Algeria , Jordan , Egypt , and Yemen , then spread to other countries. The largest, most organized demonstrations often occurred on
33696-485: The platform for sustained political action in pursuit of the "long revolution". The government mobilized to break the strike through infiltration and riot police, and while the regime was somewhat successful in forestalling a strike, dissidents formed the "6 April Committee" of youths and labor activists, which became one of the major forces calling for the anti- Mubarak demonstration on 25 January in Tahrir Square . In Algeria , discontent had been building for years over
33912-493: The police, including one officer allegedly stabbed with scissors. Some occupy camps responded by requiring that all occupiers sign a resolution to be nonviolent if they wished to stay. Rick Hampton for USA Today said the vast majority of occupy members have been nonviolent. Reviewing the global movement in December 2011, Anthony Barnett said its nonviolence remained an immense strength. One protester who did not take part stated, "It
34128-402: The political conversation about environmental impact and economic equality. Some believe that there was social media blockage of Sanders' presidential campaign, in favor of more airtime for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton . The WikiLeaks endorsed news site WikiLeaks Central began promoting the idea of a "US Day of Rage," on 10 March 2011. The Canadian editor-in-chief Heather Marsh modeled
34344-489: The political mainstream or a threat to democracy . The political scientists Yves Mény and Yves Surel noted that "populism" had become "a catchword, particularly in the media, to designate the newborn political or social movements which challenge the entrenched values, rules and institutions of democratic orthodoxy." Typically, the term is used against others, often in a pejorative sense to discredit opponents. Some of those who have repeatedly been referred to as "populists" in
34560-565: The political scientist Ernesto Laclau presents populism as an emancipatory social force through which marginalised groups challenge dominant power structures. Some economists have used the term in reference to governments which engage in substantial public spending financed by foreign loans, resulting in hyperinflation and emergency measures. In popular discourse — where the term has often been used pejoratively — it has sometimes been used synonymously with demagogy , to describe politicians who present overly simplistic answers to complex questions in
34776-441: The political scientist Carlos de la Torre defined populism as "a Manichean discourse that divides politics and society as the struggle between two irreconcilable and antagonistic camps: the people and the oligarchy or the power block." In this understanding, note Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, "populism always involves a critique of the establishment and an adulation of the common people", and according to Ben Stanley, populism itself
34992-509: The political scientist Paul Taggart has said of populism that it is "one of the most widely used but poorly understood political concepts of our time". In 1858, an English translator for Alphonse de Lamartine used the term as an antonym for "aristocratic". In the Russian Empire in the 1860s and 1870s, a left-leaning agrarian group referred to itself as the narodniki , which has often been translated into English as populists . But
35208-514: The political, economic, cultural, and media establishment, depicted as a homogeneous entity and accused of placing their own interests, and often the interests of other groups—such as large corporations, foreign countries, or the ruling political party—above the interests of "the people". According to the ideational approach, populism is often combined with other ideologies, such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism , capitalism or consumerism . Thus, populists can be found at different locations along
35424-425: The problematic nature of projecting Western expectations onto non-Western actors and practices. The terminology follows the Western example of the Revolutions of 1848 referred to as “Spring of Nations” and the Prague Spring in 1968, in which a Czech student, Jan Palach , set himself on fire as Mohamed Bouazizi did. In the aftermath of the Iraq War , it was used by various commentators and bloggers who anticipated
35640-427: The protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull . The first protest was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City on 17 September 2011, the tenth anniversary of the re-opening of Wall Street trading after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The protests were preceded by a similar Occupy Dataran movement in Kuala Lumpur in July, seven weeks before Occupy Wall Street. The phrase "The 99%"
35856-472: The protesters say that it is a possibility in the future. Occupy Ghent (Gent) began on 29 October with 400 people in the South Park (Zuidpark). They received a visit by supporters attending the "second day of Socialism" (de Tweede Dag van het Socialisme), also held in Ghent on the same day. The 2013 protests in Brazil (also known as the Come to the street and Brazilian Spring) were a series of public demonstrations in several Brazilian cities, initiated mainly by
36072-415: The protests, and the major religious groups in Egypt— Salafis , al-Azhar , and the Coptic Church —initially opposed the revolution. The mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa , proclaimed that rising against a lawful ruler—President Mubarak—was haram , not permissible. And the Muslim Brotherhood 's old guard joined in the protests reluctantly only after being pushed by the group's young people. The Arab Spring caused
36288-488: The raid, some protesters began to expand their aims to a call for the end of the monarchy. On 18 February, army forces opened fire on protesters when they tried to reenter the roundabout, fatally wounding one. The following day protesters reoccupied Pearl Roundabout after the government ordered troops and police to withdraw. Subsequent days saw large demonstrations; on 21 February a pro-government Gathering of National Unity drew tens of thousands, whilst on 22 February
36504-534: The rebels. Focus then shifted to the west of the country, where bitter fighting continued. After a three-month-long battle , a loyalist siege of rebel-held Misrata , the third largest city in Libya, was broken in large part due to coalition air strikes. The four major fronts of combat were generally considered to be the Nafusa Mountains , the Tripolitanian coast, the Gulf of Sidra , and the southern Libyan Desert . In late August, anti-Gaddafi fighters captured Tripoli , scattering Gaddafi's government and marking
36720-451: The region. In the wake of the Arab Spring protests, a considerable amount of attention focused on the role of social media and digital technologies in allowing citizens within areas affected by "the Arab Uprisings" as a means for collective activism to circumvent state-operated media channels. The influence of social media on political activism during the Arab Spring has, however, been much debated. Protests took place both in states with
36936-487: The reinvention of politics, revolution, and utopia in the twenty-first century. Activists have used web technologies and social media like IRC , Facebook , Twitter , and Meetup to coordinate events. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund released a model community bill of rights, promoting laws that strip corporations of their personhood rights and elevating the rights of citizens, for occupy organizers to adopt locally. In December 2011, Occupy Homes embarked on
37152-431: The report, included human rights activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who were arrested in November 2020. The executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, Stephen McInerney, said that a majority of pro-democracy activists had escaped Egypt, while those who could not had gone into hiding. The Project on Middle East Democracy mentioned using encrypted communication channels to talk to
37368-470: The right tend to express envy for those low on the social ladder, identifying 'special interests' with ethnic or other minorities. Progressive populists, on the other hand, envy those high on the social ladder, identifying 'special interests' with powerful groups such as large corporations. Political scientist Tjitske Akkerman Populism typically entails "celebrating them as the people", in Stanley's words. The political scientist Paul Taggart proposed
37584-403: The roadway for an hour, and were crushed by the same kind of overwhelming police force that was later mobilized against Occupy encampments across the country." Adbusters editor Micah White , who designed the original Occupy Wall Street concept, traveled to California for the protests and took part in the occupation of Wheeler Hall . In an article for Adbusters, he wrote with enthusiasm about
37800-426: The roadway." According to Fox News , a spokesman for the New York Police Department , Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. On 4 October, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into
38016-412: The role of earlier totemic religious figureheads, uniting the members of society through mechanical solidarity forming a collective consciousness. Through many-to-many collaborative Internet utilities, the Webeaucracy is empowered as never before. Social networks were not the only instrument for rebels to coordinate their efforts and communicate. In the countries with the lowest Internet penetration and
38232-510: The sacking of four successive governments by King Abdullah . The popular unrest in Kuwait also resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sabah 's cabinet. The geopolitical implications of the protests drew global attention. Some protesters were nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize . Tawakkol Karman of Yemen was co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize due to her role organizing peaceful protests. In December 2011 Time magazine named "The Protester" its " Person of
38448-406: The same poll said that blocking Facebook greatly hindered and/or disrupted communication. Social media sites were a platform for different movements formed by many frustrated citizens, including the 2008 "April 6 Youth Movement" organized by Ahmed Mahed, which set out to organize and promote a nationwide labor strike and which inspired the later creation of the "Progressive Youth of Tunisia". During
38664-554: The same strategy is also employed by some right-wing populists. In the United States during the late 2000s, the Tea Party movement —which presented itself as a defender of the capitalist free market —argued that big business, and its allies in Congress , seeks to undermine the free market and kill competition by stifling small business. Among some 21st century right-wing populists, "the elite" are presented as being left-wing radicals committed to political correctness . The Dutch right-wing populist leader Pim Fortuyn referred to this as
38880-400: The shift to confrontational tactics by authorities would be more likely to spur on the movement rather than cause it to disband. However, John Gapper, chief business commentator at the FT , offered a different view. Gapper said that it may be advantageous that the camps were being closed down, as they were beginning to alienate even members of the public who were initially fully sympathetic with
39096-404: The significance of appeals to the people beyond ideological differences, and to conceptualise populism as a discursive phenomenon. Nevertheless, the ideational school's approach to populism is problematic for the amount of substantive assumptions it imposes on how populism actually works as a discursive phenomenon, such as the idea that it is of a moral register, that vindications always refer to
39312-412: The slogan " We are the 99% " and the #Occupy hashtag format; it organized through websites such as the now defunct Occupy Together. According to The Washington Post , the movement, which Cornel West described as a "democratic awakening", is difficult to distill to a few demands. On 12 October 2011, the Los Angeles City Council became one of the first governmental bodies in the United States to adopt
39528-407: The social media accounts should have been more heavily regulated and kept to a standard. In addition, a study was published that followed how Occupy user interests changed in time from 1 June 2011 to 31 August 2012. It showed 40% of users produced Occupy related content during peak activity of the movement. But it was not sustained over the following year, with the user ratio dropping to less than 5% in
39744-420: The start of the Arab Spring. The catalyst for the escalation of protests was the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi . Unable to find work and selling fruit at a roadside stand, Bouazizi had his wares confiscated by a municipal inspector on 17 December 2010. An hour later he doused himself with gasoline and set himself afire. His death on 4 January 2011 brought together various groups dissatisfied with
39960-441: The status quo. Some protesters looked to the Turkish model as an ideal (contested but peaceful elections, fast-growing but liberal economy, secular constitution but Islamist government). Other analysts blamed the rise in food prices on commodity traders and the conversion of crops to ethanol . Yet others have claimed that the context of high rates of unemployment and corrupt political regimes led to dissent movements within
40176-482: The term populism is applied to political groups and individuals who make appeals to "the people" and then contrast this group against "the elite". Adopting this approach, Albertazzi and McDonnell define populism as an ideology that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous 'others' who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice". Similarly,
40392-427: The term "the heartland" to better reflect what populists often mean in their rhetoric. According to Taggart, "the heartland" was the place "in which, in the populist imagination, a virtuous and unified population resides". Who this "heartland" is can vary between populists, even within the same country. For instance, in Britain, the centre-right Conservative Party conceived of " Middle England " as its heartland, while
40608-423: The term [ populism ] is exceptionally vague and refers in different contexts to a bewildering variety of phenomena. Margaret Canovan , 1981 The word "populism" has been contested, mistranslated and used in reference to a diverse variety of movements and beliefs. The political scientist Will Brett characterised it as "a classic example of a stretched concept, pulled out of shape by overuse and misuse", while
40824-458: The term be rejected altogether. A common framework for interpreting populism is known as the ideational approach: this defines populism as an ideology that presents "the people" as a morally good force and contrasts them against "the elite", who are portrayed as corrupt and self-serving. Populists differ in how "the people" are defined, but it can be based along class, ethnic, or national lines. Populists typically present "the elite" as comprising
41040-624: The term has rarely been used as a political self-designation since the first decade of the 1900s, its meaning has broadened. As noted by the political scientist Margaret Canovan , "there has been no self-conscious international populist movement which might have attempted to control or limit the term's reference, and as a result those who have used it have been able to attach it a wide variety of meanings." In this it differs from other political terms, like " socialism " or " conservatism ", which have been widely used as self-designations by individuals who have then presented their own, internal definitions of
41256-706: The term is far too ambiguous for that". From examining how the term "populism" had been used, she proposed that seven different types of populism could be discerned. Three of these were forms of "agrarian populism"; these included farmers' radicalism, peasant movements, and intellectual agrarian socialism. The other four were forms of "political populism", representing populist dictatorship, populist democracy, reactionary populism, and politicians' populism. She noted that these were "analytical constructs" and that "real-life examples may well overlap several categories", adding that no single political movement fitted into all seven categories. In this way, Canovan conceived of populism as
41472-473: The term to minimise people’s revolutionary aims and discourse. Joseph Massad on Al Jazeera said the term was "part of a US strategy of controlling the movement's aims and goals" and directing it towards Western-style liberal democracy . When Arab Spring protests in some countries were followed by electoral success for Islamist parties, some American pundits coined the terms Islamist Spring and Islamist Winter . The term “Spring” further illustrates
41688-468: The thousands, drew international condemnation and resulted in the resignation of several Libyan diplomats, along with calls for the government's dismantlement. Amidst ongoing efforts by demonstrators and rebel forces to wrest control of Tripoli from the Jamahiriya , the opposition set up an interim government in Benghazi to oppose Colonel Muammar Gaddafi 's rule. However, despite initial opposition success, government forces subsequently took back much of
41904-406: The top 1% increased by over $ 700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive . From 1992 to 2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $ 960,000 with a minimum income of $ 343,927. In 2007, the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and
42120-421: The treatment they had received from the police, including thousands of arrests. By December, occupiers had begun to divert their energies beyond protest camps and a narrow focus on the banks, instead seeking to engage further with mainstream politics and joining forces with established activist groups to support causes broadly compatible with the interests of "the 99%". Interviewing one of the informal leaders of
42336-982: The underdog. Populists typically seek to reveal to "the people" how they are oppressed. In doing so, they do not seek to change "the people", but rather seek to preserve the latter's "way of life" as it presently exists, regarding it as a source of good. For populists, the way of life of "the people" is presented as being rooted in history and tradition and regarded as being conducive to public good. Although populist leaders often present themselves as representatives of "the people", they often come from elite strata in society; examples like Berlusconi, Fortuyn, and Haider were all well-connected to their country's political and economic elites. Populism can also be subdivided into "inclusionary" and "exclusionary" forms, which differ in their conceptions of who "the people" are. Inclusionary populism tends to define "the people" more broadly, accepting and advocating for minority and marginalised groups, while exclusionary populism defines "the people" in
42552-494: The uprisings. Facebook, Twitter, and other major social media played a key role in the movement of Egyptian and Tunisian activists in particular. Nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a poll that they used Facebook to organize protests and spread awareness. This large population of young Egyptian men referred to themselves as "the Facebook generation", exemplifying their escape from their non-modernized past. Furthermore, 28% of Egyptians and 29% of Tunisians from
42768-426: The village of St. Imier where modern anarchism began with the International Congress of 1872 . The Occupy Cafe along with the Decentrale Co-operative continues to assist those wishing to participate in the continuing "decentralisation of the power" of banks and corporate entities; and, to encourage global activism through developing trust and value networks. After an approximate two-year hiatus in activism on location,
42984-491: The violence, providing occupiers keep their own aggression strictly within limits. In the words of one occupier, it can help them gain media coverage if they "make things a little sexy and badass" . The Direct Action Working Group of Occupy Wall Street endorsed diversity of tactics from the earliest days of the encampment. Not all occupiers have upheld the commitment to nonviolence, with aggressive tactics being used in Spain from as early as 15 June, and with some journalists saying
43200-440: The volonté générale ( general will ) of the people. The ideational definition of populism used by Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser A common approach to defining populism is known as the ideational approach. This emphasises the notion that populism should be defined according to specific ideas which underlie it, as opposed to certain economic policies or leadership styles which populist politicians may display. In this definition,
43416-639: The wake of the counter-revolutionary moves by foreign state actors in Yemen, the regional and international military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. Some have referred to the succeeding and still ongoing conflicts as the Arab Winter . Recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria show that the conditions that started the Arab Spring have not faded and political movements against authoritarianism and exploitation are still occurring. Since late 2018, multiple uprisings and protest movements in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt have been seen as
43632-408: The west coast of the United States on 12 December. The goals of those protests included support of longshoremen and truckers in disputes with EGT and terminal operator SSA Marine (partially owned by Goldman Sachs ). A worldwide poll conducted in January 2012 found that only one third (37%) of respondents were familiar with the movement. Of the respondents who were aware of the movement, supporters of
43848-431: The word. Instead it shares similarities with terms such as " far left ", " far right ", or " extremist ", which are often used in political discourse but rarely as self-designations. In news media, the term "populism" has often been conflated with other concepts like demagoguery , and generally presented as something to be "feared and discredited". It has often been applied to movements that are considered to be outside
44064-405: The world, with thousands of protesters staging demonstrations in 900 cities including Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, São Paulo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Boston and many other cities. In Frankfurt, 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank and in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, protesters carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are
44280-432: Was "good old-fashioned word of mouth". Jared Keller argued that the sudden and anomalous social media output was caused from Westerners witnessing the situation(s), and then broadcasting them. The Middle East and North Africa used texting, emailing, and blogging only to organize and communicate information about internal local protests. A study by Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina and Christopher Wilson of
44496-691: Was "no coherent tradition" unifying all of them. While many left-wing parties in the early 20th century presented themselves as the vanguard of the proletariat , by the early 21st century left-wing populists were presenting themselves as the "voice of the people" more widely. On the political right, populism is often combined with nationalism, with "the people" and "the nation" becoming fairly interchangeable categories in their discourse, or combined with religion where "the people" are identified based on religion. Some political scientists have also argued that populism can be divided into left-wing inclusionary and right-wing exclusionary forms, though some argue against
44712-413: Was an attempted workers' strike on 6 April 2008 at the state-run textile factories of al-Mahalla al-Kubra , just outside Cairo . The idea for this type of demonstration spread throughout the country, promoted by computer-literate working-class youths and their supporters among middle-class college students. A Facebook page, set up to promote the strike, attracted tens of thousands of followers and provided
44928-402: Was destroyed and its inhabitants evicted by Moroccan security forces. The security forces faced strong opposition from some young Sahrawi civilians, and rioting soon spread to El Aaiún and other towns within the territory, resulting in an unknown number of injuries and deaths. Violence against Sahrawis in the aftermath of the protests was cited as a reason for renewed protests months later, after
45144-435: Was generally considered to have been a success in Egypt, much like in Tunisia. However, a December 2020 report published by PRI's The World , a US-based public radio news magazine, suggests otherwise. The report says that the Egyptian government increased the amount of executions that it carried out by more than twofold, with the report saying that the government put to death approximately 60 people. This number, according to
45360-554: Was organized by a very militant anarchist segment of the movement; I support the idea of taking a building, especially for housing those who don't have housing. But I don't support it with the kind of triumphal attitude I saw expressed." From the beginning the Occupy movement relied heavily on social media to disperse information and gather support. Occupy accounts were very successful in achieving these goals. The social media accounts eventually became hierarchical and failed their purpose. Some believe, in order to have been more successful,
45576-477: Was over 1500. From 2000 to 2015, about 95 papers and books including the term "populism" were catalogued each year by Web of Science . In 2016, it grew to 266; in 2017, it was 488, and in 2018, it was 615. Taggart argued that this academic interest was not consistent but appeared in "bursts" of research that reflected the political conditions of the time. Canovan noted that "if the notion of populism did not exist, no social scientist would deliberately invent it;
45792-452: Was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $ 900, while that of
46008-445: Was removed on 3 July 2013, but it returned on 4 July. It was again removed on 5 July. In Brussels , a large Occupy demonstration took place on 15 October involving between 6,500 and 8,000 participants. The protest was largely peaceful, although seven people were arrested following vandalisation of the Dexia bank headquarters and financial tower. The Occupy Antwerp (Antwerpen) movement had its first gathering on Saturday 22 October at
46224-447: Was seen in the Greek coalition government which brought together the left-wing populist Syriza and the right-wing populist Independent Greeks in 2015. Adherents of the ideational definition have also drawn a distinction between left and right-wing populists. The latter are presented as juxtaposing "the people" against both "the elite" and an additional group who are also regarded as being separate from "the people" and whom "the elite"
46440-483: Was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of spray. Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman , writing in The New York Times , said that "If the Occupy Wall Street protesters ever choose to recognize a person who gave their cause its biggest boost, they may want to pay tribute to Anthony Bologna," calling
46656-502: Was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there." One of the inspirations for the movement was the Democracy Village set up in 2010, outside the British Parliament in London . The protest received additional attention when the internet hacker group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan , set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and Occupy Wall Street". They promoted
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