Populism
Etymology
From Latin populus ("the people"), by way of the American People’s Party of the 1890s, whose members were nicknamed Populists. From that farmers’ movement the label spread to describe any politics built on the people-versus-elite frame. It is now applied across the ideological spectrum, from left to right, which is part of why it resists a single definition.
noun · /POP-yoo-liz-um/
A political approach that frames politics as a struggle between the virtuous ordinary people and a corrupt, self-serving elite.
What it names
It captures a recurring shape in politics — the appeal that gains force less from any fixed program than from naming an enemy above the people.
Example
Her campaign’s populism turned every issue into a contest between hard-working families and a rigged system.
Related idea
Nativism often travels with right-wing populism but is a narrower idea — hostility toward immigrants and outsiders specifically. Populism defines the enemy as the elite above; nativism defines it as the foreigner outside.