Editing Demagogue (section)

==History and characteristics of demagogues==
{{Pull quote|text=In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues.|author=[[Thomas Macaulay]]|source=''The History of England from the Accession of James&nbsp;II'' (1849)<ref name=Macaulay />}}

Demagogues have risen to power in democracies from Athens to the present day. While many demagogues have unique, colorful personalities, the psychological tactics they use have been similar throughout history (see [[#Methods|below]]). 

Often considered the first demagogue, [[Demagogue#Cleon|Cleon of Athens]] is remembered mainly for the brutality of his rule and his near destruction of Athenian democracy, resulting from his "common-man" appeal to disregard the moderate customs of the aristocratic elite.{{r|Signer|page=40–51}} Modern demagogues include [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Benito Mussolini]], [[Huey Long]], [[Father Coughlin]], and [[Joseph McCarthy]], all of whom built mass followings the same way that Cleon did: by exciting the passions of the masses against customs and norms of the aristocratic elites of their times.{{r|Signer|page=32–38}}  All, ancient and modern, meet Cooper's four criteria above: claiming to represent the common people, inciting intense passions among them, exploiting those reactions to take power, and breaking or at least threatening established rules of political conduct, though each in different ways.{{r|Signer|page=32–38}}

Demagogues have often exploited the lower classes and less-educated people in society. While democracies are designed to ensure freedom for all and popular control over government authority, demagogues gain power by using popular support to undermine those same freedoms and laws.{{r|Signer|page=38–40}} The Greek historian [[Polybius]] thought that democracies are inevitably undone by demagogues. He said that every democracy eventually decays into "a government of violence and the strong hand", leading to "tumultuous assemblies, massacres, banishments".{{r|Signer|page=38–40}}

While conventional wisdom positions democracy and fascism as opposites, ancient political theorists understood that democracy had an innate tendency to lead to an extreme populist government and provide demagogues with an ideal opportunity to gain power. [[Ivo Mosley]] argued that totalitarian regimes may be the logical outcome of unfettered mass democracy.<ref>Ivo Mosley, ''Democracy, Fascism and the New World Order'', Imprint Academic (2003)</ref>