populism in Europe

 populism in Europe

The rise of political parties affiliated to populism is gaining momentum across Europe in recent years.Such parties have wielded significant force in terms of electoral sucess since the end of World War II.Populism has become become a salient component of most European political systems creating a new political dimension deemed to be represent a principle challenge to contemporaneous democracy.Parties that have embrace populism theory have recently made it to rulling coalition government such as Freedom Party In Australia.The effect of this is that populist parties influence democratic parties in their policy development.Laclau defines populism as political articulation, rather than an oriented ideology,Laclau is one of the first scholars to come up with a theory explaining the relationship between contemporary democratic politics and populism.He argues that it is because of the continous expansion of populations and needs that another system to adress the minimum efforts of democratic government is needed.This has led to two antagonistic sides hence a conflict;Populist ideologists throws support from the people deemed to be politicaly handicapped to those seemed to be in the elite side.It is because of this conflict and the same time the relationship between democratic representation and populism that populism has been branded to be a mirror of the latter.however,populism movement do rely on political representation of the people hence populism itself cannot be a full form of political set up.

Several factors have led to the sudden rise of populism ,souces of discontent have increased.these are socio-cultural,political and economic factors.These factors exists in parallel dimension to each other.regressive taxation as an economic factor has led to increased poverty rendering the states to be less secure and lower pensions.In addition, globalization has created an unfair ground which encouraged de-industralization creating a sense of insecurity to citizen worried about lsing their jobs.Globalization has caused a shift in the manufaturing of goods from advanced to developing countries causing the develoepd countries to feel left behind.Also, the populists have been fueled by neoliberal globalization and increased immigrationThis has created a xenophic field where people are afraid to do businesses due to competition from foreigners.Lastly, political discontents have contributed to this;people feel that their voices are no longer heard.Citizens feel that they have lost control through new political stands such as Europeanization where powerful people make decisions affecting the lives of the coomon people.

A democratic government on the other hand is a system having a government that the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them indirectly through a delegate representation or directly.This form of governship has existed for several years , many countries in the world use this form because of its organized system.The emergence of new scholars has resulted into the coming up of several ideas which have defied the norms of democracy.Capitlism and communism are two earlier forms of ideas that have emerged but vanished almost immediately due to lack of clear policies which were deemed detrimental to the welfare of the people.Populism has proved to be persistent gaining massive support from the majority of the people;this makes it hard to throw it away because it fights for grievances that are expressed by the common people.

The interest of the people is a common notion any political association is affliated with.Popilist movements have taken this narrative to be a personal initiative sice they have made people see themselves a single unit against an oppresor.None the less, in modern politics, all speeches made by leaders directly appeal to the people will making it amost impossible to differenciate between populist from non populist political alignations.In this context it is clear that the notion ‘the people’ applies to both populism and democratic political movements.We only interpret it to suite our ideologies from the view points of both populist and democratic political mind.

during the nineties,history has shown that the people were livinas one entity that acted in a unanimous way through coomon agreement or a trusted spokesman.This people saw themselves as terminally oppressed by those in power creating an insurgency to fight for their grievances to be heard.having no formal education and political rights this people rose into political life through uprisings and riots;such uprisings threatened the normal democratic order rendering it to be partial in its administration.Populism as a form of governship has widely being speculated to be an alternative to the democratic government.with the democratization of politics,there arose a paradigm shift in the imaginaton of the people.The people became the sovereign holders of democracy making it hard for the elite to impose their wishes to them.However, the notion of the people as dangerous still lingers in todays politics making them both noble and dangerous.A populist identification is the mirror of the fullness of the people in the left wing of a political system.

Both democratic and populist governship have leaders as essential feature of the systems.in contrary,populist do not entirely depend on a leader;the presence of a leader do not make populism less open to conflicting meanings.People tend to identify themselves with leaders through firm stands and accomodating ideas the leader posess.Populism is made of a variety of rational arguments, myths,symbols and ideological themes reminding people of their parent conditions and how to channel theior grievances with a promise of better days ahead.to realize this, a politician normally potrays himself to the people as one of them.

In populist dissertation,political parties and political paries are seen as avenues that create division and hence should be eliminated or freed from personal interest of those steering them.Popilist believes that democratic leaders claim to fight for the will of the people only to betray them once in office.On the other side, the populist leaders claim to have an established rapport withb the people allowing him to advance theirs needs without being tied to the powerful political parties.Populist leaders use alternative political discourse to present morals using universal separation to contrast the high grounding of his /her message.To achieve this,the populist leaders use corruption and betrayal of political establishments.By preaching against corruption, populism offers a message of salvation after a lot of sacrifices the people have undergone.

Populism form of governship has rose to impose a challenge to the liberal democracy.Populism is not an emotion-dragged expression of dissapointment over partial rules, special interests and discouraging economic expectations.Though it lacks a formal canonical text that defines its mandates,populism nonetheless has a logical structure.This make it to be regarded as an illiberal democracy with the ability to translate popular options into public policy without the right channels employed by liberal democracy to deal with such policies.This is a not a corrective deficit rather it is a direct attack on democracy,such threats undermine the common trust that people have on liberal governmentship.

The phrase ‘the people’ is deemed to mean all citizen, heedless of social , religion and economic backgrounds.The people is a coordination of individuals who enjoy a mutual political status.liberal people have shared common descent and etnicity,populist on the other hand have frequently defined the people in a divisive context in terms of classes.Rich people are seen as ‘elites’ and are a threat to the existence free political represntation whereas those without power are seen as ‘the people’.this creates antaginistic sides that the populists depict to having different agendas.Populist see the elites as corrupt and the people as virtuous hence there is no reason as to why people should not govern themselves and their societies without the rule of law.Such approach itself raises difficulties because of its divisive nature.Dividing a state’s population into the people and the elites implies that populism is not inclusive.Elites may therefore be barred from equal citizenship violating the customs of democracy.

despite the fact that populism advocates for the will of the people,it is an enemy of pluralism and thus democracy.It imposes the assumption of uniformity on the real sence of diversity distorting the facts and elevating the needs of certain social groups over those of others.This is an open threat to democracy which requires total recognation and pluralism.A good political system lays a good ground where people live free and equally but having diverse ideologies.Populist leaders are against the elites in terms of morals as corrupt and ready to conspire against ordinary citizens,this makes populist to be on a constant fight against these forces.decision making requires mutual consent of all parties involved,if one group believe that other party represent evil then a consensus will not be reached.Populism in short submerges democratic societis into series of moralized zero-sum conflicts threatening the rights of those marginalised.Also, populism tend to undermine the freedom of press media courts as power is concentrated in the hands of the executive

A revolution wave of populism has made many to lose faith in democratic leadership.Could this be the ideal reason why some people see populism as a legitimate dicourse?Reflecting on a vision that unites all the people,it is possible to have a society that strives towards re-creating all the existing concerns of representation in a society.Populist need to adjust their ideas to fit and accomodate all the people.A society where people exist on the same level is ideal for representaion.liberal democracies tend to be democratic in the sense of not wanting to give anyone a prerogative position in society.The main difference between this populism and democratic politics is that public legitimacy as a prerequisite for leaders to be considered equals.Passion is another important aspect of representation,it should be given public legitimacy and one who wishes to develop a true political society must embrace it.In conrast if the legitimacy of populism is given full support it would allow for the induction of discriminative doctrines;some people may set up legal frameworks based on their traditions.For these reasons, populism needs a compete overhaul and reforms to the liberal democracy implemented.