Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Marine Le Pen, Beppe Grillo, Viktor Orbán, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nicolás Maduro are proof that there is a populist rise in the world. But do all these characters really have anything in common (apart from their vociferous way of being)? Is there, in the first place, what they call "the people"? Does acting on the public scene reduce the distance between government and people or is it a threat to democracy? Is there any difference between right-wing populism and left-wing populism? Jan-Werner Müller argues that the core of populism is an extreme rejection of diversity: the populists always claim that they, and they alone, represent the people and their true interests. Analytical, accessible and provocative, this compact volume makes a historical journey through various corners of the world to define the characteristics of this political and social phenomenon, and proposes concrete strategies to counteract the sophisms that allow a leader or a group to stand up -false, of course - as the sole representative of the popular will.