By the middle of 2017, Emmanuel Macron's victory in France's election, the relative underperformance of populist parties in elections in the Netherlands and the backlash in the United States against President Trump convinced some commentators that the populist wave had peaked. Pollster Nate Silver expressed the optimist view when he argued that Trump's performance as president and his global unpopularity might further stain populist parties and far-right figures in Europe.
On closer inspection, though, such hope appears misplaced. Over the next two years, populists — who generally pit “the people” against corrupt and privileged elites, attack institutions and position themselves as radical outsiders who will overturn the political order — will keep coming. In so doing, they will demonstrate that their revolution has legs.
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