Demagogue GRE Vocabulary Flashcard
/ˈdem.ə.gɒg/ (noun)
Definition
a political leader or rabble-rouser who appeals to people’s prejudice or emotions to gain power, instigator, inciter, agitator, crowd pleaser, firebrand, manipulator, orator
Example
A demagogue or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, appealing to emotion by scapegoating out-groups, exaggerating dangers to stoke fears, lying for emotional effect, or other rhetoric that tends to drown out reasoned deliberation and encourage fanatical popularity. Demagogues overturn established norms of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so.
Historian Reinhard Luthin defined demagogue as “…a politician skilled in oratory, flattery and invective; evasive in discussing vital issues; promising everything to everybody; appealing to the passions rather than the reason of the public; and arousing racial, religious, and class prejudices – a man whose lust for power without recourse to principle leads him to seek to become a master of the masses. He has for centuries practiced his profession of ‘man of the people’. He is a product of a political tradition nearly as old as western civilization itself.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/
Parts of speech
Noun: demagoguery
Noun: demagogism
Adjective: demagogic
Adverb: demagogically
