Populism - Theory In Action
THEORY IN ACTION
Populism's many forms—as a backlash to industrialism, as nationalism bypassing the power structures, and as a drive against the elite—are evident in the examples of Russia, Latin America, and the United States.
Populism developed into the dominant radical impulse in Russia in the nineteenth century. The revolutionary writer and leader Aleksandr Herzen (1812–1870) fueled the movement. In the historical agrarianism of Russia he saw the key to the nation's future. He believed that the traditional peasant communes of rural Russia could serve as the model for a cooperative commonwealth that, through its abolition of private property and emphasis on the common good, could skip the capitalist growing pains exhibited by Great Britain and the United States and move directly to socialism. His idealization of the peasantry, appeal to "go to the people," and encouragement of rebellion influenced many of the students and...
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