Antitrust Populism: Theory
GAICIL Insights
This encyclopedia entry defines antitrust populism as the populist use of competition policy to pursue politically motivated enforcement in neglect of antitrust economics, and traces the historical tradition behind it.
Knowing that history helps readers recognize the pattern when it recurs, including in today’s debates over AI and large technology firms.
Abstract
Antitrust populism refers to the populist use of competition policies in order to pursue politically motivated antitrust enforcement in neglect of antitrust economics. The historical tradition of a populist use of competition policies is hereby outlined and discussed.1
Takeaway
“Antitrust populism refers to the populist use of competition policies in order to pursue politically motivated antitrust enforcement in neglect of antitrust economics.”
Quoted verbatim from the author’s abstract.
Notes
- Aurelien Portuese, Antitrust Populism: Theory, in Encyclopedia of Law and Economics 100 (Alain Marciano & Giovanni Battista Ramello eds., Springer 2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76422-6_770. Definition quoted verbatim from the publisher’s page, https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-031-76422-6_770. ↩
Cite as: Aurelien Portuese, Antitrust Populism: Theory, in Encyclopedia of Law and Economics 100 (Alain Marciano & Giovanni Battista Ramello eds., Springer 2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76422-6_770
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