Economic Globalization and Populism in Latin America and Beyond

Both populism and economic globalization have been on the rise in the last decades, motivating increasing scholarly attention to the phenomena and their relationship (see Rodrik 2021 for a recent review). However, the relationship between populism and economic globalization is not straightforward for four main reasons. First, economic globalization is multidimensional. Second, populism can be defined in different ways, and each definition implies a different relation with economic globalization (and, more generally, with the economy). Third, there is an ongoing debate in the literature about why and how economic globalization increases support for populist leaders. Lastly, the consequences of populism for economic globalization are understudied (Funke, Schularick, and Trebesch 2020). In what follows, I discuss how previous research informs our understanding of the relationship between economic globalization and populism and the puzzles that remain to be solved. In the following section, I present the complexity of economic globalization, the related measures, and trends. I subsequently discuss three different definitions of populism and how they relate to economic globalization and, more generally, the economy. I then examine studies on the effects of economic globalization on populism and the possible underlying channels. The subsequent section considers the contrary relationship, that is, the impact of populism on economic globalization. The final section concludes with some reflections and avenues for future research.