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John B. Judis

Wednesday 21st of January 2026

Cosmopolitanism Should Americans display as much concern about Bolivians or Uzbeks as they do about their own citizenry? Maybe they should do so in some ideal world, but they simply don't. Questions about what a nation should or should not do are inevitably grounded in an existing common groundwork of concern. John Judis, The Nationalist Revival © 2020 Kwiple.com
Nationalism Nationalism is not simply a political ideology, or set of ideas, but a social psychology. Nationalist sentiment is an essential ingredient of a democracy, which is based on the assumption of a common identity, and of a welfare state, which is based on the acceptance by citizens of their financial responsibility for people whom they may not know at all, and who may have widely different backgrounds from theirs. John Judis, The Nationalist Revival © 2020 Kwiple.com
Nationalism  … proposals for an advanced welfare state and a redistribution of wealth must rest on national boundaries. They must recognize that in order for a citizen to accept, for instance, “Medicare for All,” they must be willing to pay high taxes to achieve coverage not only for themselves but for people they don't know and my never meet. If that latter group is not clearly defined, and limited to a nation's citizens … then  many people won't support such proposals.  Why should they pay their taxes to support people who don't share a common social and economic obligation to the nation? John B. Judis, The Socialist Awakening © 2020 Kwiple.com
Nationalism The relevant polarity is not really between nationalists and liberals, but between nationalists and cosmopolitans. When Trump's supporters blame America's ills on liberals, they are generally talking about cosmopolitans. John Judis, The Nationalist Revival © 2020 Kwiple.com
Populism It is not an ideology, but a political logic — a way of thinking about politics. John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion © 2017 Kwiple.com
Populism Leftwing populists chamption the people against an elite or an establishment. Theirs is a vertical politics of the bottom or middle arrayed against the top. Rightwing populists champion the people against an elite that they accuse of coddling a third group, which can consist, for instance, of immigrants, Islamists, or African American militants. Leftwing populism is dyadic. Rightwing populism is triadic. It looks upward, but also down upon a group. John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion © 2017 Kwiple.com
Populism … populist campaigns and parties … often function as warning signs of political crisis. … they have won only under certain circumstances. Those circumstances are times when people see the prevailing political norm –put forward, preserved and defended by the leading segments in the country– as being at odds with their own hopes, fears, and concerns. John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion © 2017 Kwiple.com
Socialism Socialism is coming back in a form that is different not only from the Soviet Union's or Cuba's communism, but from what socialists who consider themselves to be “Marxists” have envisioned. John B. Judis, The Socialist Awakening © 2020 Kwiple.com
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Socialism Strange as it may seem, a viable socialism must be nationalist. Its fundamental framework must be the nation and its citizens. For a democracy to function, its citizens must be clearly defined, their common commitment to the nation assumed. But socialists can be oblivious to this simple idea. At the Labour Conference in Brighton, the “remain” faction proposed that tem- porary residents from other EU countries be allowed to vote in its national elections. That would be subversive to democracy. John B. Judis, The Socialist Awakening © 2020 Kwiple.com