SURVIVING POPULISM
In 1992, a former RAND Corporation analyst, Francis Fukuyama, published a book titled The End of History and the Last Man. Written at the end of the Cold War, the book argued that the great ideological battle between the forces of liberal democracy and free markets on the one hand and Communism on the other had resulted in an unequivocal victory of the former. More to the point, he argued that this triumph demonstrated that open markets and liberal democracy in tandem was the only viable model of governance.
About two-and-a-half decades since the publication of his triumphalist work, liberal democracy yoked with capitalism now appears to be under acute duress. Across the world, the model now seems under attack from both ends of the political spectrum. Right-wing populist authoritarians ranging from Viktor Orban in Hungary to Recep Erdogan in Turkey to Donald Trump in the United States are actively assaulting the foundations of liberal democracy and, to varying degrees, promoting crony capitalism. Even in states where such populists have not come to power such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, they nevertheless have managed to alter the terms of political discourse.
What explains this lurch toward authoritarian populism? Yascha Mounk’s carefully researched and lucidly written book, The People Vs. Democracy, provides some answers and also spells out possible strategies to stem this tide. Three factors, he contends, in considerable measure explain the tilt toward authoritarian populism. They are the threats that ethnic majorities in a number of democracies perceive as a consequence of increased immigration, the explosive growth of electronic social media and the forces of economic stagnation and rising inequality. Obviously, the mix as well as the significance of these factors vary across countries. However, an amalgam of these issues, in each case, has played a vital role in contributing to the surge in authoritarian populism.
Immigration, especially from the global South, has altered the demography of a number of advanced industrial states, unsettling the hitherto privileged status of historic ethnic majority populations. These shifts have also taken place against a backdrop of limited economic expansion, thereby creating increased competition in the employment arena. Finally, amidst these vast socio-economic changes, there has been a dramatic expansion of social media. The final development has proven to be a double-edged blade: it has enabled ordinary citizens to reach out to others on an unprecedented scale. Simultaneously, it has also contributed to an atomisation of knowledge, making it possible for populist demagogues to proffer simplistic solutions to complex socio-economic ills.
It is to Mounk’s credit that he is not content to merely diagnose the sources of the phenomenon. Instead, he advocates several practical steps that can be taken to hobble its continued advance. To that end, he calls for robust strategies to ameliorate economic inequality, forthrightly tackle immigration reform and promote civic education. These remedies, while sensible, he recognises, will be neither swift nor easy to implement.
Mounk believes increased immigration, growth of electronic social media and economic stagnation have contributed to the surge in authoritarian pluralism