Books, Arts & Manners: We the People

Populism and Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality, by Jeffrey Bell (Regnery Gateway, 202 pp., $21.95)

JEFFREY BELL’S Populism and Elitism appears at an opportune moment. The emergence and popularity of Ross Perot—even given his abrupt departure from the presidential race—seem to signify not merely a widespread disaffection from the Washington political elites and the two great parties, but, more deeply, a desire among voters for a chance to choose as their leader a man whom, at least in some aspects, they can see as one of themselves. In the light of Mr. Bell’s analysis of the increasingly, self-consciously populist cast of American politics since 1968, the rise of Perot, a political outsider who shares the values of the wider populace rather than the elites, is, if not predictable, at least consistent with deeper national tendencies.

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David Levy

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Populism and Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality, by Jeffrey Bell (Regnery Gateway, 202 pp., $21.95)

JEFFREY BELL’S Populism and Elitism appears at an opportune moment. The emergence and popularity of Ross Perot—even given his abrupt departure from the presidential race—seem to signify not merely a widespread disaffection from the Washington political elites and the two great parties, but, more deeply, a desire among voters for a chance to choose as their leader a man whom, at least in some aspects, they can see as one of themselves. In the light of Mr. Bell’s analysis of the increasingly, self-consciously populist cast of American politics since 1968, the rise of Perot, a political outsider who shares the values of the wider populace rather than the elites, is, if not predictable, at least consistent with deeper national tendencies.