USSC Associate Professor David Smith is quoted in an article discussing the factors driving the rise of populism in the United States and globally.
Associate Professor Smith notes that unemployment is comparatively low in the United States, but many of the jobs available — particularly to uneducated young men — are "unfulfilling."
"Populism isn't just a response to economic circumstances, it's how those circumstances are interpreted. When there's a sense of betrayal, a sense of having what is yours being given away to someone else ... [you're] a lot more susceptible to it," Smith says.