Although it is subject to considerable current media scrutiny, populism, the political movement which may best be characterised by an anti-establishment appeal to the masses, is actually nothing new, although the form it takes has varied over time and between national contexts. Previous examples include in the United States the People’s Party from the late nineteenth century, South American political movements around ‘charismatic’ leaders such as Peron in Argentina or Vargas in Brazil (both in the mid-twentieth century), and even the approach to harnessing political power of several Emperors in Ancient Rome, notably Caesar Augustus, nearly two millennia ago.