bread and circuses

noun[plural only]2

1. •
   Food and entertainment provided by the state, particularly if intended to placate the people.
2. •
   Grand spectacles staged or statements made to distract and pacify people.

   • But is populism actually popular? Or is it simply sedative patronisation, bread and circuses devised by a cynical caste of free marketeers who presumptuously underestimate the collective intellect? — 2009