The Scapegoat

We begin this chapter on the scapegoat with an outline of populism as it is currently encountered because, in the past, if not now, it has been closely linked to scapegoating, that is, to the arbitrary implementation of punishment, or to punishment based on prejudice and hate rather than evidence, all of which gives rise to injustice. Scapegoating is the suffering of the innocent, a suffering that the law is supposed to mitigate. An assessment of the law in relation to its success or otherwise in preventing scapegoating will be addressed in the following chapters. The primary purpose of this chapter is to spell out the nature of scapegoating in relation to assumptions about the origin of society.