Word: populist
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...Elsewhere in Europe, populist parties become part of coalition governments that blunt the sharper edges of their policies. But in Switzerland's referendum-based version of direct democracy, the SVP could use a victory as a bully pulpit from which to call for more anti-immigration referendums. "The Swiss system based on grassroots participation is a double-edged sword," says Thomas Held, director of Avenir Suisse, an independent social and economic think tank. "The danger is that the party will overdramatize the issues and frighten the voters into rejecting reforms or adopting restrictive measures, as is the case with...
Just before her 90th birthday, retired executive secretary Doris Haddock took a 14-month walk across the country to agitate on behalf of campaign finance reform. Neither arthritis, nor emphysema, nor American apathy could stop the populist activism of the woman who came to be known as Granny D. Three years later, she’s as fiesty as ever, continuing her travels, this time to get out the working woman’s vote. After a recent stop at Harvard, she took some time to tell FM about the sexy Swing State Project, getting arrested on Capitol Hill...
...García's depraved military dictatorship in 1982 - only to be ousted by another coup a year later. In 1988, retired from the military, Ríos Montt formed the frg as a foe of Guatemala's rigid and venal oligarchy - shrewdly casting himself as the kind of populist caudillo (strongman) that Latin voters still tend to favor. The Maya Indians' traditional quiet stoicism about past trauma has made it easier for Ríos Montt to sell his quasi-delusional version of the local paramilitary squads he helped form, which terrorized the countryside until the civil war ended...
...seldom supports the monolithic popularity that, say, Eminem or Dave Matthews enjoys in the U.S. British artists endure by never getting too big, so that the armchair music fiends who judge the Mercury can nominate them with their consciences clear of the crime of supporting anything obvious or too populist...
...Blue Ribbon, Girls Gone Wild videos--that pits Dwayne and Denny against their stepdad, a self-important, wealthy game-show host (John O'Hurley, who was the self-important, wealthy J. Peterman on Seinfeld). Co-creator Josh Weinstein says the clash is meant to be a throwback to the populist comedy of the Clampetts and Mr. Drysdale--as well as The Simpsons, on which he and co-creator Bill Oakley were producers and writers. "Like the Beverly Hillbillies or Homer," he says, "these guys are the underdog that you root...