I believe that populism focuses on the distinction between the "good" people and the "bad" elite. The elite are bankers, politicians, big business people, etc. The people are pretty much everyone else.
First off, good and bad are both totally subjective. What Stalin sees as good and bad is different to what I see.
Populism is something so broad that we can have populist positions from all sides of the political spectrum depending on who is in power. Because you can have both Right and Left wing populists who stand against any particular regime, I'd say it’s impossible to generalize any type of populism.
For example: You could have a populist uprising in Russia. Obviously from Putin's perspective, populism is a bad thing. From a western viewpoint however, anything that topples the Putin administration would be seen positively.
One the bad side, It can also dangerous much like nationalism. They are both very powerful tools for political change, but can easily run out of control. When this happens the politicians that stoked the nationalist or populist sentiment become beholden to it. The recent unrest in China when Tokyo bought the Senkaku Islands is an example of politicians losing control over the dialogue.
On the good side, it brings together people who would otherwise never join forces, which help unify a country.
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