March, Luke."From Vanguard of the Proletariat to Vox Populi: Left-Populism as a 'Shadow' of Contemporary Socialism." SAIS Review of International Affairs, no. 27 (2007): 63-77.

March, Luke."From Vanguard of the Proletariat to Vox Populi: Left-Populism as a 'Shadow' of Contemporary Socialism." SAIS Review of International Affairs, no. 27 (2007): 63-77.

• Defines populism as "An ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people", a definition taken from Mudde [2004, the populist zeitgeist] (64).
•  Populism is a movement rather than an ideology. The content differs, but the structure always remains fluid and based around a charismatic leadership who engages with low politics and public demands (65). 
•  Left-wing populists are fundamentally distinguished from traditional left-wing figures by their rejection of any vanguard system or development. All that the state needs to do is reflect common sense opinion of the public, not shape that opinion. They have much less doctrinal purity and will be 'left' mainly through their emphasis on economic equality (66).
• Although it cannot be taken as representative of the entire former Warsaw Pact, left-wing populist parties in former Demokratischrepublik Deutschland gained votes by having charismatic leaders, making critical points of the ruling elites in the new economy, and play on nostalgia for the days of Communism (68).
• Left populists in Eastern Europe majorly lack ideological consistency and depend on charismatic leaders and anti-elite sentiment. Often times they will also add in nationalism and anti-foreigner rhetoric. They often effectively blend the economic policy of the left with the social and political ideology of the right (69).
• Populist political parties took firm root in Latin America as that region has traditionally depending on the mass dis-enfranchisement and elite systems which allow populist leaders to gain control. Surges of economic inequality continuing throughout industrialization have increased public leftist sentiments. Additionally, strong presidential systems allow of the conglomeration around a strong figurehead (69).
•  Latin American left populism often took left-wing slogans or economic policies, but then combined it with alien worldviews and created a populist ideology with little resemblance to traditional socialism (e.g., Peronism).
• "The left’s rise in Latin America is predicated on (at least) five factors: persistent extreme social equality; disillusion with neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus; the decision of the left to accept electoral politics; the weakening of the political and institutional support for the center-right governments dominant in the early stages of democratic transition; and the left’s “loss of geopolitical stigma” after the Cold War. These reasons are strikingly similar to the ‘return of the left’ in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s,when a succession of wholly or partially reformed ‘successor parties’ (former ruling communist parties) ousted center-right anticommunist administrations across most of the region" (70).
• Left populists in Latin America display a number of authoritarian tendencies, including the traditional populist urge to remain in power, and radical expression of anti-elitism and anti-Western/ Anti-capitalist sentiment. Often leaders will 'pull a Mao', or threaten to do so, but calling the people to their side (72).
• Populism is a shadow of democracy b/c it is a critique of the limits of representation and constitutionality placed on democratic wills in modern liberal or representative democracies. It thus appears as both a demand to erode elitism through eroding privileged positions within the democratic mechanism and as an illiberal force which seeks to remove the civil rights and protections that prevent an absolute expression of the people's will (73).