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Populism and the Economics of Antitrust

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The Palgrave Handbook of Populism

Abstract

Economic populism is multi-faceted but includes, as one of its essential facets, antitrust populism which stands for the populist use of competition rules and enforcement for politically-motivated reasons. Why is antitrust important for the understanding of populism? Reversely, why is populism an unavoidable feature which helps us better understanding the development of antitrust enforcement in the US and also helps us shedding insightful lights onto the European competition practice? Delving into the intricacies of populism, economics and antitrust shall help us better grasp the important relationship, yet overlooked, between the populism and antitrust. In this Chapter, I will discuss the extent to which political and economic populisms are intertwined (I), and the extent to which the general characteristics of economic populism (II) are illustrated in the current antitrust populism (III). Then, I demonstrate the risks entailed by the revival of antitrust populism, particularly on institutional structures and weakening of internal checks. I finally assess the legitimacy of the relationship between unfair competition and trade (IV). Antitrust populism appears to have fundamentally shaped antitrust history and is predicted to persist in its influence in enforcing antitrust and in fueling general (economic) populism in societies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Washington, DC, USA

    Aurelien Portuese

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  1. Political Science, University of Passau, Passau, Bayern, Germany

    Michael Oswald

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Portuese, A. (2022). Populism and the Economics of Antitrust. In: Oswald, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80803-7_13

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