ABSTRACT
As the different chapters of this book illustrate, by invoking the will of the people, populists have challenged the power of elites in Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Europe. In some regions like Latin America, they have governed in different populist waves since the 1930s and 40s until the present. In Africa, Asia, and the Middle East a first generation of populists linked to anti-colonial struggles dominated their postcolonial histories, and using elections a new generation of populists assumed power in several nations of these regions. What is new, perhaps, is that populists are in power not only in fragile democracies in the global south, but with Donald Trump’s election also in the cradle of liberal democracy, the United States. Populist parties are becoming stronger in consolidated European democracies, and at the time of writing this chapter are in power in Italy, Hungary, Greece, and Poland.
