Penal populism and populist politics

John Pratt

Chapter 4 in Research Handbook on Penal Policy, 2026, pp 66-86 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Penal policy in most liberal democracies has become markedly more punitive since the 1990s. Chapter 4 explains why this has occurred. It argues that it can be attributed to the impact of what is understood as penal populism. In addition to providing extra punishment for crime, its purpose has been to bolster social cohesion in a time of social and economic turmoil brought about by neoliberal restructuring. Ultimately, however, penal populism has failed to achieve this role. It has become absorbed, instead, within a resurgent populist politics that threatens to bring down the democratic order altogether. Nevertheless, events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine have offered penal populism a temporary, albeit fragile, reprieve, as reflected in the re-election of Donald Trump as US president in 2024.

Keywords: Populism; Penal policy; Trump; COVID-19; Anti-establishment; Brexit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308521
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