Quoted by charlatans to provide an air of magic, praised for his ambiguities, more revered than read: David Broder calls for a serious engagement with a political strategy that still has considerable relevance

One hundred and fifty years ago today, the Polish Marxist thinker and organizer Rosa Luxemburg was born. She is, without question, one of the towering figures in the entire history of the socialist movement.

This article places Europe’s current populist explosion — in left, right, and nonpartisan versions — in context. Above all, it emphasizes populism’s status as the political child of the thirty-year-long decline of party democracy. It offers a balance sheet for each populist variant, focusing in particular on the left populist experiments, and it closes with a proposal for a class-based socialist alternative.