Editing Demagogue (section)

==History and definition of the word==
{{Rhetoric}}
{{Pull quote|text=A demagogue, in the strict signification of the word, is a 'leader of the rabble'.|author=[[James Fenimore Cooper]]|source="On Demagogues" (1838)<ref name=Cooper />}}
Demagogue, a term originally referring to a leader of the common people, was first coined in [[ancient Greece]] with no negative connotation, but eventually came to mean a troublesome kind of leader who occasionally arose in [[Athenian democracy]].<ref name="Samons-etym" /><ref name="Ostwald" /> Even though democracy gave power to the common people, elections still tended to favor the aristocratic class, which favored deliberation and decorum. Demagogues were a new kind of leader who emerged from the lower classes. Demagogues relentlessly advocated action, usually violent—immediately and without deliberation.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}

The term "demagogue" has been used to disparage leaders perceived as manipulative, pernicious, or bigoted.{{r|Signer|page=32–38}} However, what distinguishes a demagogue can be defined independently of whether the speaker favors or opposes a certain political leader.{{r|Signer|page=32–38}} A demagogue is defined by how they gain or hold democratic power: by exciting the passions of the lower classes and less-educated people in a democracy toward rash or violent action and breaking established democratic institutions such as the rule of law.{{r|Signer|page=32–38}} [[James Fenimore Cooper]] in 1838 identified four fundamental characteristics of demagogues:{{r|Signer|page=32–38}}<ref name=Cooper />
* They present themselves as a man or woman of the common people, opposed to the elites.
* Their politics depends on a visceral connection with the people, which greatly exceeds ordinary political popularity.
* They manipulate this connection, and the raging popularity it affords, for their own benefit and ambition.
* They threaten or outright break established rules of conduct, institutions, and even the law.

Their methods are known as '''demagoguery'''<ref name="Ceaser"/><ref name="Roberts-Miller"/> or '''demagogy'''.<ref name=Macaulay/> The central feature of demagoguery is persuasion by means of passion, shutting down reasoned deliberation and consideration of alternatives.  While many politicians in a democracy make occasional small sacrifices of truth, subtlety, or long-term concerns to maintain popular support, demagogues do these things relentlessly and without self-restraint.<ref name="Ceaser">{{cite book | title=Designing a Polity: America's Constitution in Theory and Practice | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | author=Ceaser, James W. | chapter=Demagoguery, Statesmanship, and Presidential Politics | year=2011 | pages=75–118 | isbn=978-1442207905 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTz-2DB0Xb8C&pg=PA90 | access-date=2016-10-14 | archive-date=2017-09-13 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913070132/https://books.google.com/books?id=WTz-2DB0Xb8C&pg=PA90 | url-status=live }}</ref> Demagogues "pander to passion, prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance, rather than reason."<ref name=LarsonDefn />

The [[Austria|Austrian]] [[Philosophy of language|philosopher of language]] and political scientist {{Illm|Paul Sailer-Wlasits|de}} differentiates between [[populism]] and demagoguery, asserting that "[a] central aspect that distinguishes populism from demagoguery is that demagogues in politics possess substantial systemic power for mobilization, which poses a serious threat to democracy." In political practice, he argues, a clear indication of demagoguery is when "the person, the party, and the political program merge, manifesting as over-identification and over-personalization in a single leading figure."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sailer-Wlasits |first=Paul |date=2024-01-14 |title=Von Wählern und Verantwortung: Wie Populismus und Demagogie die Demokratie untergraben |trans-title=Of Voters and Responsibility: How Populism and Demagogy Undermine Democracy |url=https://www.telepolis.de/features/Von-Waehlern-und-Verantwortung-Wie-Populismus-und-Demagogie-die-Demokratie-untergraben-9596811.html |access-date=2024-12-18 |website=Telepolis |language=de}}</ref>