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How do we understand the nature and diversity of populist politics, in developed and developing countries? Righteous Demagogues provides a novel approach grounded in democratic theory, inequality, and party competition. It argues that populists are successful when they evoke the moral contract--that states are obligated to redress certain types of inequality--and promise its restoration, in ways that resonate across the normal lines of social division and partisanship. These changes in political competition can spur confrontations with the opposition and state institutions, leading to populist rejection or authoritarian governance.