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Does this work? The Death Eaters are mostly old aristocratic families, right?
It's more like Harry takes a side in a conflict between nobles, but one of Voldemort's most significant tenets is getting the Muggle "common people" out of the wizarding world and ruling over both, so I'm not sure he can claim the common man on his side.
In the context of wizards, I think we're meant to read Voldemort as engaging in a kind of fascist politics of purification - unite all the 'true wizards', blame everything bad on a scapegoat minority (muggle-born and muggle-sympathisers), and then pursue a larger project of conquest and expansion. I think populist is a reasonable word to use for that kind of politics.
It's just a little confusing because whenever Voldemort got in power, he was mostly ruling through fear and seems to have done little to nothing to get the general wizarding populace on board. He got a few power-seekers and harnessed the existing bureaucracy, but wasn't pursuing the "common wizard" at any point I can see.
How small can your "true wizards" group be relative to the general population before you can't call it populist anymore?
Could just be Rowlings' inability or choice not to "get" how the template for her big bad, the austrian painter got into power. In the simplistic view its all jackboots and black lightning raining from the sky and misery porn tinged with mud and rain, the big bad can't have gotten the populace part of populism through delivering or claiming to deliver to the masses what they wanted, it must have been pure-violence from the beginning to the end.
It's possible she's trying to make that case, but I think it's more that she's presenting magic as such a huge force multiplier that you can just have a very small number of people ruling over the masses. While teamwork certainly helped against Voldemort, in the end it was mostly just about out-magicking him, not "the people rising up and overthrowing tyranny".
Voldemort's plan seemed to be "I can kill anything you can organize against me" and while that might not have worked against an army, the wizarding world doesn't seem capable of fielding one.
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It kind of works. The Death Eaters ally themselves with many of the outcasts of wizarding society like giants and werewolves.
Considering how scandalously Hagrid's half-giant ancestry is treated, and the way Umbridge talks down to the centaurs, and the things Dumbledore says about the lie of the Ministry of Magic statues (which depict all the other sapient magical races looking up to wizards), I think it would be possible to reframe Voldemort as a populist getting all of the hated rabble and dregs of society onside along with a handful of elites, and revolting with them.
I do wonder about the werewolves and giants that sided with the Death Eaters. Even if they enjoyed "being themselves" during the war, surely they understood that there was no way that a blood purist group would ever give them a good deal once the war was actually won. Like, the Malfoys might be willing to do an alliance of convenience with Fenrir Greyback, but it's kind of hard to imagine them ever accepting or tolerating his existence long term after a victory.
It's a classic high-low alliance. The outcasts and dregs of society will be kept outside and used as enforcers- a better deal than polite society usually gives them.
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They might just have been desperate for even allies of convenience. Very risky, but not unheard of.
"Japan Forms Alliance With White Supremacists In Well-Thought Out Scheme"
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In the very funny fanfic Seventh Horcrux there's a recurring bit where characters reference Voldemort's horrifying agenda of blood and terror "... except for the Werewolf Rights Act, that was very progressive, and...
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This is a great point I forgot about, probably because we don't really see much of those groups or get a feel for how big they are. Harnessing the oppression of groups that the current government doesn't favor is a lot more like a populist movement than how he was interacting with the other wizards.
I guess the monstrous groups figured any port in a storm: infighting in the wizard government would give them more freedom to do whatever they wanted, and even if Voldemort wasn't interested in keeping them around, he's got a much more ambitious project to work on in conquering both worlds, that might give them time to get out from under the wizarding boot and be ready for when he finally comes for them.
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Certainly the Death Eater vision is pure-blood wizard supremacy, but they appear to have been flexible enough to recruit other magical races by promising to elevate their status, or give them revenge on their traditional enemies, or something similar. I doubt the Death Eaters ever intended to treat werewolves, giants, vampires, etc., as equals, but useful allies are useful allies, and I could see the werewolves going for that deal. From the werewolf perspective, you know all the wizards look down on you anyway. That's your default. The Death Eaters share the prejudices of their fellows, but they also offer you potential power and a chance to strike back at some, if not all, wizards.
I would not be surprised if Greyback or his fellows intended to betray Voldemort at some point in the future. In the short term, though, they seem to have shared a common enemy.
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