Populism and authoritarian-populist parties have surged in the 21st century. In the United States, Donald Trump appears to have become the poster president for the surge. David M. Ricci, in this call to arms, thinks Trump is symptomatic of the changes that have caused a crisis among Americans - namely, mass economic and creative destruction: automation, outsourcing, deindustrialization, globalization, privatization, financialization, digitalization, and the rise of temporary jobs - all breeding resentment. Rather than dwelling on symptoms, Ricci focuses on the root of our nation's problems. Thus, creative destruction, aiming at perpetual economic growth, encouraged by neoliberalism, creates the economic inequality that fuels resentment and leads to increased populism. Ricci urges political scientists to highlight this destruction meaningfully and substantively, to use empirical realism to put human beings back into politics. Ricci's sensible argument conveys a sense of political urgency, grappling with real-world problems and working to transform abstract speculations into tangible, useful tools. The result is a passionate book, important not only to political scientists, but to anyone who cares about public life. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘David M. Ricci has long been one of political science's most insightful connected critics. He now challenges the discipline to confront the dangers of authoritarian populist movements by focusing on the damages wrought by modern capitalism's ‘creative destruction' - in a highly accessible account that is itself both creative and constructive.'

Rogers M. Smith - University of Pennsylvania

‘In his new and bracing book, David M. Ricci follows up on his Politics without Stories by stressing the obligation of political scientists to aim directly at the intellectual underpinning of present-day oligopoly and its pathologies: the scandal of mainstream economics, aka neoliberalism. Everyone who recognizes the impoverishment of general ideas today - and everyone majoring in the social sciences - should read this most readable book.'

Todd Gitlin - Columbia University, New York

‘In this engaging volume, David M. Ricci traces the populist propensities of our time to the defects inherent in neoliberalism. As a corrective, he seeks to rally his fellow political scientists behind two Aristotelian claims - that man is first and foremost a political, not an economic, animal; and that, in the construction and maintenance of political communities, politics, not economics, should be regarded as the proper architectonic science.'

Paul A. Rahe - Hillsdale College, Michigan

'This is a book addressed, like Ricci's earlier books, to his professional colleagues, to the political scientists of the world's universities - especially America's. But his message is actually wider. Every engaged citizen, every political activist living in our times, which are bad times, needs to read this book. It describes where we are and tells us what has to be done. (And the rif on driverless cars is wonderful.)'

Michael Walzer - Institute for Advanced Study, New Jersey