Anti-elitism and Shifting Realism: Putting Communication and Politics into Accounts of 'the People'

This article centrally reviews two recent books, one Australian and one from the United States, which deal with populism. To situate their arguments within a wider consideration of populism and collective social actors, it also introduces and uses elements of a recent article by Latour on conceptions of politics. The article begins by placing its observations on populism within the context, particularly Australian, of both populist politicians and some of the earlier work done by scholars of populism, registering the issue of what drives the need to return yet again to what appears a perennial, even obvious, element of modern political landscapes. Some central issues are established in the description and analysis of populism - eschewing ideology critique; treating populism as a political form and what this means; and deploying the categories of 'the people' and 'the population' - in order to guide discussion and assess the usefulness of the works under review.