Democracy is a system of feelings. Citizens must feel included. When those feelings collapse, no procedural reform can restore legitimacy. Lilliana Mason, in Uncivil Agreement , demonstrates how partisan identity fuses with emotion, producing politics of anger and disdain. Liberals mistake this terrain for irrational noise, but illiberals treat it... See more

Scholars such as Jan-Werner Müller and Pippa Norris emphasize that populists frame politics as a battle between virtuous people and corrupt elites