The recent French election illustrated what may look to many like an intriguing fact: the rejection of free trade by both extreme-left and extreme-right populism. ...In practice, there is little difference between Le Pen’s “smart protectionism” and Mélenchon’s “solidary protectionism.”
Today’s populists oppose free trade even when they don’t stand at the extremes of the political spectrum. In the United States, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders campaigned for protectionism....
Authority and “the people” / The Encyclopedia Britannica defines “populism” as a “political program or movement that champions the common person,” noting that it “usually combines elements of the left and the right.” Authoritarian populism is “typically critical of political representation and anything that mediates the relation between the people and their leader or government.”
A number of reasons account for the marriage between populism and protectionism. First, the common person does not understand how free trade benefits the vast majority of people....
A second reason why populists naturally favor protectionism is that the common person is more likely to fear foreigners, if only because he travels less and meets fewer strangers....
The third reason is that populism needs much state power, which free trade undermines....