France. Italy. Great Britain. USA.
All countries with a long democratic tradition. Or at least so long that one could assume they are armed against populism. Against anti-democratic forces that are attacking not only their national foundations, but also a common Europe.
But the opposite is the case: in France, the left-wing New Popular Front only just managed to prevail against the far-right Rassemblement National. Great Britain is suffering from the consequences of Brexit, which is the result of the populist propaganda of Boris Johnson and Co. In Italy, the post-fascist Giorgia Meloni is in power. And in the USA, the presidential election in November is putting democracy to the test.
In Germany, too, many are looking with concern at the upcoming state elections in East Germany. How have anti-democratic forces become such a great threat to those states that often boast of democratic values? Political scientist Catherine Fieschi addresses this question in her book “PopulocracyIn the podcast “Democracy in Question” she speaks with social anthropologist Shalini Randeria, who is also rector of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM).
As the political scientist Aiko Wagner Fieschi defines populism as a political strategy that creates a gap between an allegedly corrupt elite and the “real” people. According to Fieschi, populists play this strategy with two cards: authenticity and immediacy. It has been no secret for a while that Trump’s popularity also stems from his rowdiness. But Fieschi sums up his strategy in the podcast at 09:45 minutes:
It’s almost a political flirtation: I lie. You know I lie. And I know you know I lie. We understand each other.
The podcast is also worth listening to because Fieschi examines the populist figure in relation to gender: Can anyone be a bombastic populist like Trump? And what strategy do female populists like Meloni pursue? Fieschi explains how populists manage to use the strength of liberal democracies – tolerance of the opposition – against them. A tactic she calls jiu-jitsu politics. And she illustrates how social and digital media support a populist’s strongest cards – authenticity and immediacy.
Fieschi’s book is already around five years old. Since then, a left-wing alliance has won the election in France. In Great Britain, a social democratic government is in power for the first time in 14 years. And the Austrian city of Graz has had a communist mayor since October 2021.
Populism is not exclusively a phenomenon of the political right. Nevertheless, right-wing populism is still the greatest threat to liberal democracies in Europe and the USA. Fieschi shows the weaknesses of democracy and how populists exploit them to win the votes of those people who have been disappointed by democracy.
