Alfred Cardone

I am an American living in Europe taking advantage of the "outsider" perspective in order to understand my country's political system and how members of society interact within the United States.

I received my BA in History from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 2002 and my MA in Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts in 2004. Afterwards, I worked in international education in London, specifically helping American students adjust to life in the UK, and in the finance industry in Luxembourg.

My research focuses on three essential questions: what is "populism," how does one define the Tea Party and Occupy organisations, and how are they all related? Concerning "populism," I argue that a dichotomy exists regarding how this label is conceived today that appeared after the emergence of the Populist Movement of the late nineteenth century.

For the Tea Party and Occupy organisations, I maintain that they are more complex than many originally imagined and do not conform to the general anti-government and anti-capitalist activism respectively applied to them. To conclude, I postulate that the elements within the Tea Party and Occupy organizations have inherited the role of the Populist Movement and are developing a new way to view populism in America.