The Definition of Populism Essay Example

The role of politics in a community is to improve the living standards of a population by advocating for better policies and development programs from the government. Various ideologies, such as populism, apply to the approach used by political parties with the aim to structure the developments according to the party's manifesto. Populism refers to the advocating of the rights of the ordinary people by providing their requests to gain political influence. After the American Civil war, the South lost to the North, thus providing the abolition of slavery. However, the Southern states faced challenges in incorporating the Negro population in their system. The rise of populism, late in the 18th century, aimed to integrate the majority black population in political parties' agenda to gain influence in the Southern regions. This paper will analyze the historiography skills used various articles to elaborate on populism in Texas after the civil war.

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The Populist Dreams and Negro Rights article focuses on the democrat populist ideology against the White Man Union party (Goodwyn, 1436). Garret Scott championed for the political involvement in the Grimes County election, while J. G McDonald of the White Man Union aimed to exclude the Negroes from the election. Terror acts resulted in the exodus of the black and white populists from the county thus leading to the defeat of populism, which dominated the county initially. The Texas Populists and the Failure of Biracial Politics focus on the failure of the Populist movement as a result of unequal representation of the blacks in the party despite the perception that the People's Party targeted equal opportunities (Cantrell and Scott, 660). The article Building a Populists Coalition in Texas, 1892-1896 focuses on the three divisions that framed the Populist Party in Texas for the Republican Americanism (Miller and Stacy, 256). Therefore, the arguments on populism differ in terms of the structure applied by the Populist Party.

The articles use the works of C. Vann Woodward to draw necessary information about populism in Texas. C. Vann Woodward, a historian, focuses on providing a deeper analysis of the approaches used in the late 18th century and their application in the current governance, citing the positive outcome in the ideology in ensuring absolute representation (Woodward). Goodwyn uses the source to indicate the techniques applied to structure the political environment in the century. Cantrell and Scott use the source to emphasize the devotion of the White Populists to integrating the rights of the Negroes in the political system. Miller and Stacy use the source to indicate the results obtained by the White Populists after promoting voting rights to the Negroes, thus winning the election. Therefore, the source provided the significance of uniting a state severed by racial concerns in providing political dominance using populism.

Conclusion

The revolution in populism indicates changes in the context as the articles focus on the racial perspective to establish the success of the ideology. However, anthology populism in 1971 resulted in the collective support through building a perception to the public. In 1989, the rise of the right-wing populism across Europe and the USA resulted in the emphasis on the conservative notion to gain the popularity. The election of President Obama in 2008 indicated a variation in the definition of populism as shown in the articles as the racial difference resulted in the popularity of Obama. Therefore, the idea of populism changes with the needs of the masses to suit the current needs of the masses (Lavelle). Historians focus on the successes and failures of the idea's application to provide knowledge on better governance through populism.

Works Cited

Cantrell, Gregg, and D. Scott Barton. "Texas Populists and the Failure of Biracial Politics." The Journal of Southern History55.4 (1989): 659-692.

Goodwyn, Lawrence C. "Populist Dreams and Negro Rights: East Texas as a Case Study." The American Historical Review76.5 (1971): 1435-1456.

Lavelle, Ashley. The death of social democracy: Political consequences in the 21st century. Routledge, 2016.

Miller, Worth Robert, and Stacy G. Ulbig. "Building a Populist Coalition in Texas, 1892-1896." The Journal of Southern History 74.2 (2008): 255-296.

Woodward, C. Vann. Origins of the New South, 1877--1913: A History of the South. Vol. 9. Lsu Press, 1981.