8. POPULIST PARTIES
Miloš Brunclík
POPULIST
PARTIES
❑ Ambiguous term
▪ Parties without a clear ideology
▪ Success based on defense of ordinary
people and critique of elites
❑ Common pattern across the
Western world
▪ Left-wing (southern Europe)
▪ Right-wing (West and North)
❑ High electoral relevance
WHAT IS
POPULISM?
1. A full-fledged ideology
2. Communication
strategy/style
3. A thin-centred ideology
▪ No complex picture and vision of
society
▪ focus on selected issues
POPULISM AS A
STYLE AND
COMMUNICATION
❑ Simplification
▪Seemingly simple solutions
▪Black-white perspective
▪We X they
❑ Emotional appeal
▪Encouraging sympathies, fears,
insecurity, hatred or fear
❑ Flexibility
▪Party manifesto adjusting to current
atmosphere and popular demands
❑ Unclear, unfeasible aims, policies and
solutions
DEFINITION
❑Francisco Panizza (2005):
analytical core
▪ People and elites: homogenous
groups
▪ Antagonism between people
and elites
▪ People – morally „clean“
sovereign that is to take
decisions
ANTI-ESTABLIS
HMENT
❑faith in the wisdom and virtue of ordinary
people
❑silent majority X ‘corrupt’ establishment
❑deep cynicism and resentment of existing
authorities
▪big business, big banks, multinational
corporations, media pundits, elected
politicians and government officials,
intellectual elites and scientific experts, and
the arrogant and privileged rich…
▪E.g. dishonest elites (‘Crooked’ Hillary)
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT
❑ „anti-political-establishment
party“ APE
▪ Andreas Schedler (1996)
▪ APE blame traditional parties for
creating exclusive power cartel
unaccountable to the people
▪ APE: save and protect citizens from
corrupt elites
ANTI-PARTY
PARTIES
Cas Mudde (1996)
Hans Georg-Betz (1993)
anti-party sentiment
• Deep distrust of parties
• Parties perceived as incompetent, selfish and
corrupt
populist parties capitalize on the sentiment
leads to success of populist parties
CAS MUDDE
(1996)
❑ Extremist anti-party sentiment
▪ „denial of parties“ as such
▪ Fascism and communism
▪ Anti-democratic
❑ Populist anti-party sentiments
▪ Selective denial of parties
▪ Only some parties are criticized
POPULIST
ANTI-PARTY
SENTIMENT: 2 KINDS
OF CRITICISM
❑ Against party policies
▪ Immigration friendly
▪ High-tax friendly
▪ EU friendly
▪ ….
❑ Against party behavior
▪ Corruption
▪ Manipulative – manipulating media that
attack anti-party parties
▪ Power cartel
▪ Inability to adapt to changing world
▪ Inability to respond to citizens
PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
❑Isaiah Berlin (1972)
▪ nationalism expresses desire of those
underrated to be taken seriously
❑Elisabeth Ivarsflaten (2008): grievance theory
▪ Economic concerns
▪ Cultural concerns (immigration)
▪ Political concerns (corruption)
❑Francis Fukuyama (2014)
▪ Demand for recognition of one’s identity
▪ People feel not to be respected and
valued
▪ Forgotten people
SHIFT
FROM….
❑ Pluralist civil society
❑ Shared values of liberal
democracy
❑ Partisanship, ideology,
faith
▪ Compromise possible
❑ Free debate, critical
thinking
❑ No gaps between people
… TO TRIBALISM
(TRIBAL MENTALITY
AND CULTURE)
■ Erosion of shared values
■ Gaps between people
■ No room for compromise and
debate
■ Tribal identity
■ Rationality, facts, truth – do not
work
■ Social media
■ Originally – relevant only to
sport teams and fans
TYPES OF
POPULIST
PARTIES
1. Populism without a specific ideology
2. Radical left-wing populism
3. Radical right-wing populism