Populism, Far From Turned Back, May Be Just Getting Started<br />This means that as long as a populist party does not win more than 50 percent of the vote — virtually impossible in systems like<br />that of the Netherlands — the other parties can band together to form a coalition excluding it, known as a "cordon sanitaire." Yet even though Mr. Wilders did not take control of government, his movement and policies advanced.<br />UKIP wrote that We live in an unprecedented era of volatile party support,<br />Whether populist parties win or lose depends not just on the level of popular support — which appears<br />surprisingly consistent across countries — but also on the nature of the political system.<br />It triumphed in the British vote to leave the European Union<br />and in the American presidential race, fell short in the Dutch elections, and won its greatest-ever success in France’s first presidential round and faces likely humiliation in the second round.<br />Since the 1960s, populist parties have doubled their average share in European elections<br />and tripled their share of seats in European legislatures, according to a recent paper by the political scientists Ronald Ingleheart and Pippa Norris.<br />Even if populist parties are often too small to take power, when the correct forces align, they are powerful enough to reshape politics.<br />And while Republican voters may have been skeptical of Mr. Trump, polarization made their side’s victory — and the other’s defeat — feel imperative.
