https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nationalism-big-winner-2016-leon-hadar?published=u&trkSplashRedir=true&forceNoSplash=true

Will Nationalism be the Big Winner in 2016?

Jan 7, 2016Originally published in the Business Times of Singapore
The rise of Donald Trump in the US and other leaders committed to populism is not just transforming national politics but could have a major impact on geopolitics
By Leon Hadar
JAN 8, 2016
Washington
AGAINST the backdrop of the growing power of extremist political movements in Europe on the right (the UKIP in Britain and the National Front in France) and on the left (Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain), and the meteoric rise of Donald Trump (and Bernie Sanders) in the United States, it has become a political cliché of sorts to argue that "populism" was in ascendance in 2015. Carrying torches and pitchforks, the masses were arising and threatening the status quo and the power of the "elites".
Pundits suggested that widening social-economic inequalities were playing into the hands of politicians who were supposed to give voice to the fury of "the regular people" and who want to wield control over their government rather than having a small group of political insiders dominate Washington and Brussels.
The term "populism" tends to describe a disposition as opposed to a set of policies grounded in a coherent political ideology. It is suspicious of the way politics and business are conducted; hence, it targets for attacks the existing democratic institutions and the market economy which are seen as sustaining the power of the ruling elite.

And mainstream politicians quite often use "populism" as a derogatory term. Anyone who challenges the status quo is offering simplistic answers to complex problems while "populist" politicians exploit genuine public anxiety. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nationalism-big-winner-2016-leon-hadar?published=u&trkSplashRedir=true&forceNoSplash=true