Abstract: Hofstadter and Lasch represent two opposing discourses in the study of American populism:the former regards populism as a major threat to the democratization,while the latter regards right-wing populism as a cure for the deviation of democratization.The difference of viewpoints stems from the divergence of their theorical orientations:Hofstadter holds a rationalization stance of moderate liberalism,while Lasch has a moral orientation based on mashup of the economic activism and social conservatism.This difference directly affects their judgements of the social structure and system operation,as well as their critiques of liberalism,conservatism and radicalism,and points to two different views of development:Hofstadter's moderate progressive view of history based on pluralism and Lasch's anti-pluralism and anti-evolutionary view of history.However,these two scholars share common views on such essential issues as democracy,rationality,morality,tradition,enlightenment and progress.Both of them have deep identity of democracy and a realistic attitude towards improvement,recognition and appreciation of the rationality and morality,affirmation and reflection of the American liberal tradition,and expectation of enlightenment,progress and pluralism.On the whole,on populism,the two scholars show obvious opposition on the surface of phenomenon judgment,disagreement and crossover in the middle level of institutional analysis,and isomorphism and complementarity in the bottom level of the value identification.

Key words: Richard Hofstadter, Christopher Lasch, populism, intellect