Publisher synopsis

Drawing on original polling of thousands of voters, interviews with leading thinkers, and on-the-ground reporting across Britain, Europe and America, Byrne decodes the populist playbook. He reveals populism’s five tribes, showing which voters can still be won back and he traces the millions flowing into Britain’s populist media-political complex.

He maps the rhetoric populists use to weaponise fear and nostalgia, and he warns: democracies rarely collapse in normal times – they fall after the next crisis, when hope collapses. WHY POPULISTS ARE WINNING sets out a bold plan to rebuild the radical centre of Western politics.