Demagogue
Etymology
From Greek dēmagōgós, from dêmos ("the common people") and agōgós ("leader," from ágein, "to lead"). Originally it meant simply "leader of the people," a neutral description. Even in ancient Athens, though, it curdled into an insult for those who led the crowd by pandering to it, and that hostile sense is the one that survives.
noun · /DEM-uh-gog/
A political leader who gains power by stirring up the fears, prejudices, and passions of ordinary people rather than by reasoned argument.
What it names
It identifies a specific danger inside democracy itself — that the surest route to popular power can be the one that flatters and inflames rather than informs.
Example
The demagogue never proposed a policy he could not shrink into a chant.
Related idea
Populism is a broad political style that claims to speak for ordinary people against elites; a demagogue is the individual figure who exploits that appeal cynically. Not all populism produces demagogues, but every demagogue reaches for its language.