Beyond the populist nation: populism, nationalism, and the future of global governance

Abstract

This Perspective argues that populism is best understood not primarily as a pathology of identity or anti-pluralism, but as a political response to social and economic institutions – most notably those associated with global capitalism – that generate inequality, insecurity, and democratic disempowerment. Against liberal interpretations that criticize populism on moral grounds and seek to counter it by correcting its essentialist conceptions of “the people,” the article contends that exclusionary and majoritarian rhetoric functions less as the motivational core of populism than as the political language through which structurally induced grievances are articulated. Drawing on the Italian case, it illustrates how right- and left-wing populisms construct different notions of “the people” from distinct positions within global capitalism, yet nonetheless converge on nationalist responses to supranational economic constraints. This convergence reveals the strategic but ultimately self-defeating character of populist nationalism: While it channels demands for protection and democratic control, it does so through exclusionary national frames that cannot effectively address the transnational structures producing these grievances. The article therefore argues that the persistence of populist nationalism reflects not ideological inevitability itself but the absence of transnational institutions capable of combining democratic accountability with social protection. Addressing populism therefore requires a global covenant to reform global governance and re-embed markets within democratic control.