Populism and the commons

This chapter traces out the ties and disjunctions between populism and the commons, maintaining that a radical democratic counterhegemony should build on their complementarities. It first elucidates its key terms and debunks arguments that dwell on the conflicts between populism and the commons. It then explores their convergences by demonstrating how late social movements have transfigured core components of populist mobilization in tune with the spirit of the commons, engendering a figure of ‘common populism’, or ‘populist commons’. The political logics of left populism and commoning are not identical. But they converge over the democratic empowerment of ‘ordinary people’. Scrutinizing their intersections turns the spotlight to the city and ecological movements, which are rarely considered as terrains of populist intervention. From a political slant, populism seems to be furnishing what is missing in the commons: a powerful strategy for rallying together social forces and for imbuing activity with a conscious direction.