Producerism, sometimes referred to as "producer radicalism," is a
syncreticSyncretic politics involves taking political positions that attempt to reconcile seemingly opposed ideological systems, usually by combining some elements associated with the left with some associated with the right. The term is derived from the older idea of syncretic religion.- Syncretic...
ideology of
populistPopulism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
economic nationalismEconomic nationalism is a term used to describe policies which emphasize on domestic control of the economy, labor and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital. It is in opposition to globalization in many...
that holds that the productive forces of society - the ordinary worker, the small businessman, and the
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
, are being held back by
parasitical elementsSocial parasite is a derogatory term denoting a group or class in society which is considered to be detrimental to others, by taking advantage of them in some way.-Introduction:...
at both the top and bottom of the social structure.
General position
Producerism sees society's strength being "drained from both ends"--from the top by the machinations of globalized
financial capitalFinancial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
and the large, politically connected corporations that together conspire to restrict free enterprise, avoid taxes and destroy the fortunes of the honest businessman, and from the bottom by members of the underclass and illegal immigrants whose reliance on welfare and government benefits drains the strength of the nation. Consequently,
nativistNativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
rhetoric is central to modern producerism (Kazin, Berlet & Lyons). Illegal immigrants are viewed as a threat to the prosperity of the middle class, a drain on social services, and as a vanguard of globalization that threatens to destroy national identities and sovereignty. Some advocates of producerism go further, taking a similar position on legal immigration.
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, producerists are distrustful of both major political parties. The
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
is rejected for its support of corrupt
Big BusinessBig Business is a term used to describe large corporations, in either an individual or collective sense. The term first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at...
and the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
for its advocacy of the unproductive lazy waiting for their entitlement handouts (Kazin, Stock, Berlet & Lyons).
The
Reform Party of the United States of AmericaThe Reform Party of the United States of America is a political party in the United States, founded by Ross Perot in 1995 who said Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics—as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues—and desired a viable alternative to the...
often uses producerist rhetoric. Populist producerism (and nativist policies) are also seen in the rhetoric of
Jean-Marie Le PenJean-Marie Le Pen is a French conservative and nationalist politician who is founder and president of the Front National party...
in France,
Jörg HaiderJörg Haider was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two separate occasions, the long-time leader of the national-conservative Austrian Freedom Party and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Austria , a breakaway party from the FPÖ.Haider was controversial within...
in Austria, and similar dissident politicians across Europe (Betz & Immerfall, Betz).
Producerism is sympathetic to the idea that labor is an end in itself, inherently ennobling, and thus should be protected at least to some extent from the chaotic forces of consumer choice and market competition. In some
Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
countries, this position is used as an abstract definition of producerism, which is then held as the opposite of an abstract
consumerismConsumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism...
, the position that the free choice of the consumer should dictate the economic activity of a society. In other parts of the world, especially the United States, such a clear-cut definition is not feasible.
Past and present
Some hold that American producerism has its roots in the populist politics of
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . He was military governor of Florida , commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans , and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy...
and in the tariffs and protections of
Henry ClayHenry Clay, Sr. was a nineteenth-century American statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He served as Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829....
's
American SystemThe American System was a mercantilist economic plan based on the "American School" ideas of Alexander Hamilton, expanded upon later by Friedrich List, consisting of a high tariff to support internal improvements such as road-building, and a national bank to encourage productive enterprise and form...
, even though these two figures were political rivals. Others look even further back in history, to the farmers' rebellions of the post-colonial period and the Presidency of
JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
, who has been described as originating or at least adopting the rhetoric of producerism while enacting policies antithetical towards it, namely unregulated trade and the expansion of slavery.
Early producerism, if it can be called such, was abolitionist not so much on moral grounds, but because slaves depressed the wages of free working men. Thus its sentiment was not to grant blacks rights and citizenship but rather to return them to
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
or grant them an independent nation in the
tropicA tropic can refer to:In geography, either of two circles of latitude:*Tropic of Cancer, at 23° 26' 22" N*Tropic of Capricorn, at 23° 26' 22" S*Tropics, referring to the tropical regions of the world.*Tropic, Florida, a town in the United States...
s. The racism that some see as inherent in producerist ideology perhaps has its genesis here—in the perception of not only the Plantation Economy but the "Negro" himself as a threat to the prosperity of the independent white worker or small businessman. In the 1840s and 1850s, this economic, as opposed to ethical, abolitionism found expression in the nativist Know-Nothing Party, which has been cited as the ancestor of modern producerism.
While such theories remain speculative, most historians would agree that by the time of the
Gilded AgeIn American history, the Gilded Age refers to substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century...
and the Presidential candidacy of
William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most popular speakers in American history, he was noted for a deep, commanding voice...
, producerist currents clearly existed in American society. Bryan's synthesis of leftist economic programs with religious
fundamentalismFundamentalism refers to a belief in a strict adherence to a set of basic principles , sometimes as a reaction to perceived doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life....
has had a lasting, perhaps defining, influence on the ideology. Also in that era, the National Labor Reform Party and its successor, the Greenback-Labor Party, have been described as part of a producerist tendency.
Despite its long historical legacy, the idea of producerism as a defined political position outside the common left-right axis only began to attract serious interest in the 1980s, when the dual concerns of foreign competition and domestic decay began to radicalize culturally conventional Americans. This attracted the interest (and concern) of academia, which then sought out the roots of the phenomenon in 19th-century Populism or even 18th-century rural unrest.
Even today, there are very few politicians and commentators who would define themselves as producerist or anti-producerist. Among people in the general public who would be sympathetic to a producerist program or political party, only a vanishingly small proportion are even aware of the term. This low level of ideological consciousness results, at least in part, from the fact that almost by definition producerism lacks advocates at the elite level, and so has not been able to summon the intellectual forces necessary to codify and propagate its tenets. Furthermore, producerism has no primordial icon, no Marx or
Adam SmithAdam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
to rally around and give the movement a solid identity, although American political dissident
Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American economist, political activist, and the founder of several political organizations known collectively as the LaRouche movement. He has been a perennial candidate for President of the United States, having run in eight elections since 1976, once as a...
has for decades been a vocal champion of his own brand of producerism, perhaps seeking that iconic role for himself.
Therefore, it is difficult to say exactly what producerism is beyond the broad themes of nationalism,
protectionismProtectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states, through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and prevent foreign take-over of local markets and companies...
, opposition to the
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
, and
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
. Some historians use the term as a synonym for the right-wing or rural elements of a form of populism peculiar to late 19th-century America, and so do not consider any modern or non-American movements as producerist. Others, however, define producerism as a thoroughly recent position that arose in numerous Western countries in reaction to the combined stresses of the liberal Big Government trend that followed the Second World War and the
globalizationGlobalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and exchange....
of recent decades, while recognizing that it drew on earlier sentiments.
Comparison to other ideologies
Producerism at its core is a conservative, traditionalist, and nationalist critique of free-market capitalism--a form of middle-class militancy feeding off a "dual-edged resentment" against both rich and poor. However, various other forces across the political spectrum share similarities with producerism, and have at times used its rhetoric to further their ends.
Marxism-Leninism
In Marxist theory, as in producerism, a productive
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
is portrayed as engaged in a
class struggleClass struggle is the active expression of class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, leading ideologists of communism, wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle".Marx's notion of class has...
with the
ruling classThe term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society...
. Also, like Marxism-Leninism, producerism implicitly subscribes to the
labor theory of valueThe labour theories of value are economic theories of value according to which the values of commodities are related to the labour needed to produce them....
. Stalin's "socialism in one country" moved communism in a nationalistic direction and thus increased its ideological similarities with producerism. Marxism-Leninism denounces anti-Semitism, where Jews are made the scapegoats of parasitic capitalism, and denounces all similar
identity politicsIdentity politics refers to political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of social minorities, or self-identified social interest groups. Not all members of any given group are necessarily involved in identity politics....
as ideologically misguided.
There is another crucial ideological difference between the two systems: producerists believe that it is the middle class, not the
proletariatThe proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons...
, which generates the
surplus valueSurplus value is a concept used famously by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy, although he did not himself invent the concept. It refers roughly to that part of the new value created by production which is claimed by enterprises as "generic gross profit"...
that is then expropriated by parasitic elements (executive class). Also, while Marx viewed capital as a monolithic interest, producerists distinguish between what they see as productive domestic industrial capital that serves the national interest and speculative, idle
financial capitalFinancial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
, which they claim holds no patriotic loyalties and is, therefore, international in nature.(Laclau, Postone) However, Lenin made the distinction between financial and industrial capital, forming a basis for his conception of
imperialismImperialism, as defined by the dictionary of human geography, is “the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.” Imperialism, in many ways, is described...
. As producerism is a movement by and for the middle class, Marxism would consider it a revolt of the
petite bourgeoisiePetit-bourgeois is a French term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries....
.
Fascism and Nazism
There are points of contact between producerism and
fascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
as well: producerism is closely associated with highly nationalistic populist right-wing movements championing the traditional values of the "common man" against a morally corrupt and traitorous elite. This had led in some instances to the adoption of anti-Semitic
conspiracy theoriesConspiracy theory is a term that originally was a neutral descriptor for any conspiracy claim. However, it has come almost exclusively to refer to any fringe theory which explains a historical or current event as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful Machiavellian conspirators.Conspiracy...
and forms of white racial nationalism.
Historically, the Nazi economist
Gottfried FederGottfried Feder was an economist and one of the early key members of the Nazi party. He was their economic theoretician. Initially, it was his lecture in 1919 that drew Hitler into the party...
distinguished between productive "industrial capital" and parasitic, usually Jewish, "financial capital," and the French Fascist leader
Georges ValoisGeorges Valois was a French journalist and politician.-Life and career:Born in a working-class and peasant family, Georges Valois went to Singapore at the age of 17, returning to Paris in 1898 . In his early years he was an Anarcho-syndicalist. He found work as a secretary at L'Humanité Nouvelle...
proposed a state in which only the producers of manufactured goods would have a vote. Hitler himself gave rhetorical support to producerism in an interview where he stated "We demand the fulfilment [sic] of the just claims of the productive classes by the state" and "In my scheme of the German state, there will be no room for the alien, no use for the wastrel, for the usurer or speculator, or anyone incapable of productive work."
Fundamental differences
The ultimate compatibility of producerism with any totalitarian system is open to debate. The indistinct definition of the term has caused some confusion. As a framing narrative, producerism has been utilized by a wide variety of populist movements, including some with Fascist or Marxist-Leninist tendencies. However, under the etiology of
Christopher LaschChristopher Lasch was a well-known American historian, moralist, and social critic.-Life:...
, producerism has as a core value the glorification of the autonomous
rugged individual, the archtypical free-spirited American of the frontier, and thus, while socially conservative, it is fundamentaly hostile to statist movements.
Libertarianism
Libertarian denunciations of the "welfare/warfare state" in which welfare recipients and the
military-industrial complexMilitary-industrial complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy relationships between governments, national armed forces, and industrial support they obtain from the commercial sector in political approval for research, development, production, use, and support for military training,...
are seen as the twin recipients of big government benefits at the expense of the taxpayer are similar to those made by producerists. But, as nationalists, producerists are more supportive of military spending than are libertarians, and the producerist skepticism of free trade at all costs is antithetical to the vast majority of libertarians.
Religion and social issues
Although producerism is primarily economic in emphasis, it also has a perspective on social issues. Namely it upholds the traditional values of the middle class as the only true national values. It defends those values against the corruption of decadent inherited wealth, and against the dangerous apathy and sloth it sees as being the inevitable consequence of dependency on a
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
. Therefore, producerists tend to be patriotic but at the same time intensely distrustful of the State, which they believe to be under the control of forces hostile to the nation.
Some have pointed out a similarity between producerism and certain Christian
End TimesThe End Time, End Times, or End of Days are the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
narratives that prophesise betrayal by trusted political and religious leaders, with many citizens drifting into laziness and sin. The producerist emphasis on the inherent value of hard work is directly related to the
Protestant work ethicThe Protestant Work Ethic, sometimes called the Puritan Work Ethic, is a sociological, theoretical concept. It is based upon the notion that the Calvinist emphasis on the necessity for hard work is proponent of a person's calling and worldly success is a sign of personal salvation...
, outlined by Weber. In the United States and in Europe it is often sympathetic towards conservative or Fundamentalist/Primitive Christianity, seen as a defender against both the moral degeneracy of the poor and the rapaciousness of unbridled capitalism. But producerism is not tied to a specific religious world view, and its emphasis on economics, labor, and class resentments embues it with a materialism not entirely compatible with a purely religious outlook.
Unions and business
Producerists tend to support skilled-craft trade unions, as organizations of "ordinary men" creating goods beneficial to society, but oppose left-wing, revolutionary unions or those that claim to speak for the lower ranks of society in general. National, industrial corporations, that is, those that produce tangible goods in domestic facilities, are viewed favorably, while international, globalized companies that engage in
outsourcingOutsourcing is subcontracting a service, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision whether to outsource or to do inhouse is often based upon achieving a lower production cost, making better use of available resources, focussing energy on the core competencies...
, "sending jobs abroad" or those that earn their profits from the abstract financial world are treated with hostility in producerist circles. This disposition is sometimes referred to as "
business nationalismCorporate nationalism is a phrase that is used to convey various meanings, including:*A political culture, in which members believe the basic unit of society and the primary concern of the state is the corporate group rather than the individual, and that the interests of the corporate group are the...
." High tariffs and protectionist policies are regarded as not only beneficial to workers, but essential to the long-term survival of the domestic economy to counter the predatory practices of currency manipulation and illegal trade practices.
The domestic innovators and patriotic industrialists such as
Henry FordHenry Ford was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents...
,
Lee IacoccaLido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca is an American businessman known for his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s, serving as President and CEO from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992. One of the most famous business people in the world, he was...
and
Sam WaltonSamuel Moore Walton was an American businessman and entrepreneur born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma who founded the American retailer Wal-Mart.-Early life:...
(whose Wal-Mart imports moved over 1.5 million jobs that might otherwise be in America to
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
between 1989 and 2003, a year after Walton's death.) are the heroes in this view of the business world, while the cost-cutting CEOs and unaccountable financiers are the villains.
Historically, the producerist attitudes towards corporation adopted to the changing concerns of the middle class. In
William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most popular speakers in American history, he was noted for a deep, commanding voice...
's time, the big corporations like railroads and mining interests were strongly disliked because they were an economic threat to the producerist-minded small businessmen. Today, by contrast, the middle class tends to be corporate employees and so views corporations more favorably. Nationalist concerns about the decay of the national productive infrastructure due to
outsourcingOutsourcing is subcontracting a service, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision whether to outsource or to do inhouse is often based upon achieving a lower production cost, making better use of available resources, focussing energy on the core competencies...
is also a fairly recent phenomenon in America, driven primarily by competition from
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and China.
Disputing the "producerist" label
While producerism does exist as a widespread if rarely commented-upon political position, right-wing critics argue the epithet "producerism" is often used by left-wing groups to disparage rival forms of economic dissent.
Figures who have been called producerist or associated with producerism, although they may not use the term to describe themselves, include
Ross PerotHenry Ross Perot is an American businessman from Texas best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984 and founded Perot Systems in 1988. It was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in...
,
Pat BuchananPatrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior advisor to American presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the...
and more recently political commentator
Lou DobbsLouis "Lou" Dobbs is an American radio and television host, managing editor for CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, and editorial columnist.- Background and family life :...
. Some have associated producerism with the wider phenomenon of the
Radical MiddleThe terms radical center or radical middle describe a Third Way philosophy as well as an associated political movement. Followers of this philosophy will and can claim to improve understanding by simultaneously affirming both sides, whether that be disagreement amongst left-right politics or other...
, but such comparisons remain controversial. In general, it can be said that the average producerist tends more towards
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
and
anti-globalizationCriticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
than does the typical member of the Radical Middle.
Perhaps a more salient distinction is this: The Radical Middle is of the opinion that "government doesn't work" and must be overhauled, that is, government is well-intentioned but dysfunctional. Producerism believes government as currently constituted is ill-intentioned but quite functional - actively advancing the interests of international capital and the servile underclass it manipulates for the votes and passivity it needs to stay in power.
See also
- William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most popular speakers in American history, he was noted for a deep, commanding voice...
- Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior advisor to American presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the...
- Consumerism
Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism...
- Distributism
Distributism, also known as distributionism and distributivism, is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Roman Catholic thinkers as G. K...
- Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:Arthur Griffith was born at 61 Upper...
- Immigration debate
- Know-Nothing Party
- Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch was a well-known American historian, moralist, and social critic.-Life:...
- Mercantilism
Mercantilism is an economic theory that holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable." Economic assets or capital, are represented by bullion held by the state, which is best increased through a...
- Middle Class
The middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
- One New Zealand Party
The One New Zealand Party was a small political party in New Zealand. It was partly modeled on the Australian One Nation Party, founded by Pauline Hanson. Its primary focus was on matters such as the Treaty of Waitangi, but its wider platform was broadly paleoconservative or producerist...
- Paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
- Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot is an American businessman from Texas best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984 and founded Perot Systems in 1988. It was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in...
- Populism
Populism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
- Proletarianization
Proletarianization is a concept in Marxism and Marxist sociology. It refers to the social process whereby people move from being either an employer, or self-employed, to being employed as wage labor by an employer...
- Radical Middle
The terms radical center or radical middle describe a Third Way philosophy as well as an associated political movement. Followers of this philosophy will and can claim to improve understanding by simultaneously affirming both sides, whether that be disagreement amongst left-right politics or other...
- Reform Party of the United States of America
The Reform Party of the United States of America is a political party in the United States, founded by Ross Perot in 1995 who said Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics—as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues—and desired a viable alternative to the...
- Social Credit
Social Credit is described by its originator, C. H. Douglas , as "the policy of a philosophy". Douglas called his philosophy "practical Christianity". This philosophy is interdisciplinary in nature, encompassing the fields of economics, political science, history, accounting, and physics...
Further reading
- Berlet, C., and M. N. Lyons. 2000. Right-wing populism in America: Too close for comfort. New York: Guilford Press.
- Betz, H-G. 1994. Radical Right-wing Populism in Western Europe.
- Betz, H-G., and S. Immerfall, (eds.). 1998. The New Politics of the Right.
- Canovan, M. 1981. Populism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
- Ferkiss, V. C. 1957. Populist influences on American fascism. Western Political Quarterly 10 (2): 350–373.
- Fritzsche, Peter. 1990. Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Fritzsche, Peter. 1998. Germans into Nazis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
- Kantrowitz, S. 2000. Ben Tillman & the Reconstruction of White Supremacy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
- Kazin, M. 1995. The populist persuasion: An American history. New York: Basic Books.
- Laclau, E. 1977. Politics and ideology in Marxist theory: Capitalism, fascism, populism. London: NLB / Atlantic Highlands Humanities Press.
- Lasch, Christopher. 1991. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Payne, S. G. 1995. A History of Fascism, 1914-45. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press.
- Postone, M. 1986. Anti-Semitism and National Socialism. In Germans & Jews since the Holocaust: The changing situation in West Germany, ed. A. Rabinbach and J. Zipes, 302–14. New York: Homes & Meier.
- Shirer, William L. 1960. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Stock, C. M. 1996. Rural radicals: Righteous rage in the American grain. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press.
On Producerism and conspiracism and middle being squeezed, (Canovan 1981, 54-55; Kazin 1995, 35-36, 52-54, 143-144; Stock 1996, 15-86; Berlet and Lyons 2000, 4-6).
On Producerist white supremacy and the attack on Blacks after The Civil War (Kantrowitz 2000, 4-6, 109-114, 153).
External links
In the Media
Supportive
Opposing
Scholarly
- Journeymen for Jesus: Evangelical Artisans Confront Capitalism in Jacksonian Baltimore (ISBN 0-271-01773-2) Book proposing a Jacksonian and evangelical
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion ; some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for biblical authority; and an emphasis on the...
origin for Producerism
- Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life Book that includes section on Producerist hostility towards financial capital.