Idea Transcript
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conceptualizing the populist challenge
Hanspeter Kriesi Dept of Political and Social Sciences European University Institute
1
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Introduction populism – • ‘a notoriously vague term’ • ‘pathology of democracy’, a ‘pathology of representative politics’ • an indication of a democratic malaise that political actors and citizens would do well to take seriously • the reflection of a tension that is at the heart of democracy – the tension (or democracy’s ‘original flaw’) between • the ideal of democracy (its ‘redemptive face’) and • its actual functioning (its ‘pragmatic’ face). • a productive force that serves as the catalyst for a profound realignment of European party systems 2
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Overview •
• •
Populism as • an ideology • a political strategy • a communication style Conditions for the rise of populism in European democracies Conclusion
3
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as an ideology
4
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as an ideology •
A ‘thin’ ideology (Cas Mudde 2004: 543): • ‘that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups – ‘the pure people’ and the ‘corrupt elite’ • and argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people’
5
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as an ideology Elements of the definition • the existence of two homogenous groups – ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, • the antagonistic relationship between the two, • the idea of popular sovereignty, and • a ‘Manichean outlook’ that opposes the positive valorisation of ‘the people’ combined with the denigration of ‘the elite’.
6
Department of Political and Social Sciences
The people • •
A monolithic conception of the people (a homogenous category, having a common will, a ‘volonté générale’) Three meanings of ‘the people’: • The people as sovereign (as demos – implies a specific vision of democracy) • The people as a nation (as ethnos – exclusion of all those who do not belong – right-wing populism) • The people as a class (identification with the oppressed – left-wing populism)
7
Department of Political and Social Sciences
The populist vision of democracy • •
Takes ‘government by the people’ literally is ‘democratic illiberalism’ (minimalist definition by T. Pappas) • Rejects the ‘constitutionalist dimension’ of democracy (Mény and Surel 2002): checks and balances, rule of law, respect for minority rights • Rejects the ‘aristocratic element’ of democracy (Manin 1995), i.e. is hostile to representative democracy, distrusts all kinds of intermediaries, above all political parties (Pasquino 2008), pleads for a direct link between elites and masses • Rejects a pluralist vision of the people (Matropaolo 2008), i.e. pursues an ‘identitarian democracy’ – the ‘volonté générale’ 8
Department of Political and Social Sciences
The populist vision of democracy •
•
Has a strong anti-institutional impulse – ‘the romantic impulse of directness, spontaneity and the overcoming of alienation’ (Canovan 1999: 10) provides a triple simplification (Rosanvallon 2011: 6-7): • a political simplification by considering the people as an obvious subject; • a procedural simplification by maintaining that the established elites are corrupt and that the only real form of democracy is the direct appeal to the people; and • a structural simplification by maintaining that the social cohesion of society is provided by an identity, usually defined in negative terms, and not by the quality of the social relations 9
Department of Political and Social Sciences
The populist vision of democracy Resembles the vision of ‘delegative democracy’ (O’Donnell 1994): • takes the winner of the elections to be ‘the embodiment of the nation and the main custodian and definer of its interest’ • rests on the premise that ‘whoever wins elections (to the presidency) is thereby entitled to govern as he or she sees fit, constrained only by the hard facts of existing power relations and by a constitutionally limited term of office’ • Considers the leader and his ‘Movement’, as ‘living organisms’
10
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as a political strategy • •
•
A way to establish the direct link between the people and those who govern Weyland (2001: 14): ‚populism is best defined as a political strategy through which a personalistic leader seeks or exercises government power based on direct, unmediated, uninstitutionalized support from large numbers of mostly unorganized followers‘ i.e. the direct linkage between the people and those who govern is introduced by a unique charismatic leader
11
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as a political strategy The populist leader • is an outsider (a new challenger who does not belong to the established political elite) • is a charismatic personality: • incarnates the demands of ‚the people‘: has direct, unmediated access to the people’s grievances, and • acts as the spokesperson of the vox populi (Abts 2011: 930) • is unique: monolithic conception of ‘the people’ and ‘the leader’ • Offers a direct link between the people and political decision-making, ‚a short-cut that bypasses philosophical disputes and institutional niceties‘ (Canovan 2002)
12
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populism as a political strategy •
Mobilization of challengers • From above: populism • From below: movement politics
13
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Political mobilization strategies Mobilization in movement politics • SPIN-structures, Gerlach and Hine 1970) • S – segmented (many groups) • P – polycentric (many leaders) • I – integrated • N – networks • Informal self organization • building on ‘organizational dissatisfaction’ (Nedelmann 1987) • aided by new, digital technologies (Bennett and Segerberg 2012) that allow for large-scale mobilization processes with a minimum of formal organization 14
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Political mobilization strategies •
•
Direct democracy • Top down ‘plebiscitory’ version: the leader mobilizes ‘the people’ to support his/her preferred policies • Bottom up ‘civil society’ version: votes on policies are initiated and intensely/contradictorily debated by civil society Direct democracy (Hendriks 2010) • Top down version – ‘voter democracy’: defined in purely aggregative, plebiscitary terms • Bottom up version – ‘participatory democracy’: combines direct self-governance with ‘integrative decision-making’, which involves ‘a process of engaging in thorough, preferably transformative, and usually lengthy deliberations to seek consensus’
15
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy Close relationship between ideology and strategy: • Populist vision of democracy – populist mobilization strategy • Requires direct involvement of citizens in establishing the ‘general will’, but • views mobilization simply as an aggregation procedure of the citizens’ more or less homogenous, ready-made opinions • Participatory/deliberative/constructionist vision of democracy – network-based mobilization strategy • Requires direct involvement of informed citizens in an open, pluralistic debate between the spokespersons/organizations of the diverse groups in the population • Rejects the populists’ monolithic mobilization/representation 16
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors
17
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology
Mobilization Vision of democracy (ideology) strategy Non‐populist populist (Participatory/delibe‐ rative/liberal) Bottom up Social movement (SPIN) network structures Top down Populist parties (populist)
18
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology
Mobilization Vision of democracy (ideology) strategy Non‐populist populist (Participatory/delibe‐ rative/liberal) Bottom up Social movement Anti‐parties (SPIN) network structures (Beppe Grillo) Top down Populist parties (populist)
19
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors Movimento 5 stelle: • Populist vision of democracy: extreme case of • anti-elitism (‘tutti a casa’) • Notion that the people have been betrayed • Idea that the sovereignty of the people has to be restored • Mobilization strategy: • Relies on charismatic leader, who completely dominates political communication, • but also on connective mobilization procedures based on new digital technologies 20
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology
Mobilization Vision of democracy (ideology) strategy Non‐populist populist (Participatory/delibe‐ rative/liberal) Bottom up Social movement Anti‐parties (SPIN) network structures (Beppe Grillo) Top down Populist parties (populist)
21
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology
Mobilization Vision of democracy (ideology) strategy Non‐populist populist (Participatory/delibe‐ rative/liberal) Bottom up Social movement Anti‐parties (SPIN) network structures (Beppe Grillo) Top down Mainstream parties Populist parties (populist)
22
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors Mainstream political parties: • Liberal vision of democracy • Populist mobilization strategies (Katz and Mair 1995, 2009, Mair 2000, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2011, van Biezen et al. 2012)
23
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors Mainstream political parties: Populist mobilization strategies • Cartel party thesis: shift from parties’ combining representative and governmental roles to strengthening their governmental role – at the detriment of their represen-tation function • Decline of parties’ representation function: dramatic decline in party membership ratios over the last 30 years, decline in party identification, voter turnout, as well as the increasing volatility of the vote • ‘partyless democracy’: ‘populist democracy may be understood as popular democracy without parties’ 24
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors Mainstream political parties: • British New Labour government under Tony Blair: ‘non partisan leaders with a non-partisan programme running a non-partisan government in the interest of the people as a whole’
25
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Relationship between populism as ideology and as political strategy: a simple typology of political actors •
•
A special case: the ‘personal party’ • the party is the product of a leader rather than he or she the product of a party, • party communications are focused on the leader, and • the leader dominates the party, especially in terms of decisions regarding candidates, policies and alliances Forza Italia and Popolo della Libertà as examples (McDonnell 2013)
26
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populist communication style (March 2012) • • •
refers to the people and justifies its actions by appealing to and identifying with the people, it is rooted in anti-elite feelings, and it considers the people as a monolithic group without internal differences except for some very specific categories who are subject to an exclusion strategy
27
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populist communication style (Jagers and Walgrave 2007) •
•
•
‘thin’ version: only reference to the people - appeals to and identifies with the people, and pretends to speak in their name • An ‘empty shell’ – a normal political style adopted by all kinds of politicians from all times ‘thick’ versions: appeals to the people+ • Exclusive populism: adds the exclusion element • anti-elitist populism: adds anti-elitism • Complete populism: includes all three elements Empirically, in Belgium • empty populism of the mainstream parties, and • complete populism of the right-populist Vlaams Blok. 28
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Populist communication style (March 2012) •
•
Three elements of an index: • people-centrism: the extent to which the people are seen as a unified entity, in an unambiguously positive light, and the speaker identifies with the people • anti-elitism: the extent to which the elite in general (rather than just elements of it) is seen in a profoundly negative way (feelings of resentment), destructive towards the people, engendering a wholesale political crisis • popular sovereignty: the extent to which there are calls for increased power to the people An overall index: populism is a matter of degree 29
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Europe • •
An illustration of the usefulness of the typology of apolitical actors General condition: deficiencies of the main intermediary system linking the citizens to political decision-making – the party system
30
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Western Europe •
Erosion of the parties’ representation function (Mair) • ‘partyless democracy’ – the erosion of the mainstream parties’ representation function, • gives rise to populist protest: ‘As party democracy weakens…., the opportunities for populist protest clearly increases’
31
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Western Europe •
•
a division of labour between two types of parties (Mair 2011): • Mainstream parties: deliver, but no longer represent • Populist parties: claim to represent, but do not deliver A division of labour between: • Partyless populism of mainstream parties • Protest populism of populist challengers
32
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Europe: critique •
Excessively static argument that does not allow for the possibility of a dynamic transformation of • the populist challengers more specifically, and • the party systems more generally
33
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Europe: critique •
protest populism is likely to flourish, but it takes different forms: • The rise of new challengers in the party system (new parties of the populist left and right) • The radical rejection of the party system as such (antiparties) • The expansion of conflict beyond the party system (new social movements)
34
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions for the rise of populism in Europe: critique •
Different forms of protest populism are: • the driving forces of processes of restructuration and realignment of the party system • bringing it more in line with the transformed conflict structures of European societies (Kitschelt 2000, Kitschelt and Rehm 2012, Kriesi et al. 2006, 2008, 2012).
35
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions of populism in Central and Eastern Europe •
•
Party system: not erosion, but low level of institutionalization • High level of electoral volatility • No stable roots in society • Hardly considered legitimate by the citizens • Unstable organizations +extensive corruption/low quality performance of public authorities: contributes to anti-elitism
36
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conditions of populism in Central and Eastern •
• •
Rise of a ‘centrist populist parties’ (Ucen 2007): • Non-radical new populist challenger parties • Tough anti-establishment appeal • No ideological commitments These parties become the strongest force in parliament in their first ever elections: ‘newness’ as an asset Examples: Smer, NDSV, New Union, New Era, Res Publica
37
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conclusion •
• •
No new concepts • Populism as ideology (Cas Mudde) and • populism as a political strategy (Kurt Weyland) Suggestion: to combine them to fully grasp the phenomenon of populism in Europe Add populism as communication style (Jagers and Walgrave) • A way to operationalize populism as ideology
38
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Conclusion •
Conditions for the rise of populism in Europe • Linked to the deficiencies of the party systems in both parts of Europe: erosion vs underinstitutionalization of parties’ representation function • But not sufficiently differentiated between conditions that favour the rise of populism as an ideology and those that favour the rise of populist mobilization strategies
39
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Thank you for your attention!
40