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What is populism?

In the majority of humans, whether they are small people or powerful people, the main innate motivation is social ambition, that is to say the desire to rise in the social hierarchy. Our homo-sapiens species shares this instinct with many large primate species.
Social ambition is expressed mainly in the form of participation in the game of alliances, which we call widespread nepotism. Le népotisme généralisé emprisonne chaque individu dans un ensemble de groupes sociaux de tailles croissantes, un peu comme une poupée russe ; famille, entreprise, corporation, état nation. Au sein de chaque groupe, l'individu est allié aux autres membres du groupe, contre ceux hors du groupe. Ces alliances deviennent très puissantes, instinctivement, dès qu'une menace survient. C'est ce que nous appelons le 'nous contre eux'.

Populism consists of seeking to obtain the support of the people by exacerbating the instinct of 'us against them', by embedding in the collective culture more or less imaginary groups presented as threatened.
Us the little ones against the elites.
nous les autoctones contre les immigrés,
etc.

In terms of the conquest of power, such a system, which does not address reason, but instinct, makes it possible to obtain a stronger and more stable level of support than a political system based on a project. common based on reason.
On the other hand, at the level of the exercise of power, it only produces the exacerbation of social tensions, which can lead to civil war.

Go deeper

Refer to question 'What is a human?'
Then 'What are the consequences of social ambition? The notion of generalized nepotism'
and finally 'Why do humans reason massively wrong?'