“Populism is becoming very popular” – A phrase we heard recently booming around the European Union Parliament during Nigel Farage’s final address to the EU Institution marking Britain’s historic departure after 47 years.
Globalists loathe populism – they do not trust the people to make the right choices – only they know what is best for us.
In 2016 the Globalists felt a Tsunami of Western Populism as two waves hit them hard – firstly Brexit followed closely behind by the election of President Donald J Trump.
Their shock was palpable resulting in an immediate full-scale military-style attack attempting to overturn both results. It now seems certain they will fail at both levels.
So now we see the publication of a new report from The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change entitled High Tide Populism in Power offering “the first truly global look at the populist phenomenon that has been shaking up established political parties across the world.
Report findings
Political scientists, journalists and many politicians are more worried now about the stability of liberal democracy than they have been in many decades.
In 2000, an average 8.5% of the vote went to populist parties, by 2017 that number had risen to 24.1%.
The report states that populist rule—whether from the right or left—has a highly negative effect on political systems and leads to a significant risk of democratic erosion.
The core argument of populist parties and leaders is that they embody the will of a country’s “true people” and anyone who opposes them is betraying the people. Nothing should constrain the will of the people and theirs is a battle between right and wrong.
We wanted to revisit the state of populism around the world to inform thinking on what might be done to stem its rising tide.
Key Findings
- Populists last longer in office.
- Populists often leave office in dramatic circumstances. A much larger number are forced to resign or are impeached, or do not leave office at all.
- Populists are far more likely to damage democracy. Populist governments are about four times more likely than non-populist ones to harm democratic institutions.
- Populists frequently erode checks and balances on the executive.
- Populist leaders amend or rewrite their countries’ constitutions, and many of these changes extend term limits or weaken checks on executive power. The evidence also suggests that populists’ attacks on the rule of law opening the way to greater corruption.
- Populists attack individual rights. Under the populist rule, freedom of the press falls by some 7 per cent, civil liberties by 8 per cent and political rights by 13 per cent.
Three Ways That Populists Frame ‘Us vs. Them’ Conflict
| Cultural Populism | Socio-Economic Populism | Anti-Establishment Populism | |
| The people | ‘Native’ members of the nation-state | Hard-working, honest members of the working class, which may transcend national boundaries | Hard-working, honest victims of a state run
by special interests |
| The others | Non-natives, criminals, ethnic and religious minorities, cosmopolitan elites | Big business, capital owners, foreign or ‘imperial’ forces that prop up an international capitalist system | Political elites who represent the prior
Regime |
| Key themes | Emphasis on religious traditionalism, law and order, national sovereignty, migrants as enemies | Anti-capitalism, working-class solidarity, foreign business interests as enemies, often joined with anti-Americanism | Purging the state from corruption, strong leadership to promote reforms# |
We found that many critics of populism are too unwilling to acknowledge that populist voters are often motivated by perfectly legitimate concerns about their countries’ shortcomings.
An adequate defence of democracy is, therefore, to undercut the support for populism by identifying and addressing these grievances as well as to defend democratic institutions by opposing populist forces that are out to destroy them.
However historical record strongly suggests that populism is a clear and present danger to democracy, but although populism is one of the principal causes of democratic death, most democracies faced with a populist government do manage to survive.
It is therefore of the greatest importance to use the historical record to examine which opposition strategies have tended to succeed, and which have failed.
So what are the lessons for some of the richest and most powerful democracies that are now governed by populist leaders? And do the findings presented here bode well or ill for the ability of American institutions to withstand Trump’s populist administration?
The United States is the oldest continuously functioning democracy in the world. It is one of the world’s richest democracies and its political system is extremely decentralised, making it much harder for one government to concentrate power in its hands.
All of these facts make it more difficult for American Presidents to undermine democratic institutions. It would therefore be rash to conclude that populists will necessarily have as much success in dismantling democratic institutions in the United States as they already have in countries like Hungary or Venezuela.
Indeed, in his first years in office, the country’s current President has already pursued many of the same basic strategies that other populists around the world have effectively used to weaken their own democratic institutions and although the United States remains a functioning democracy today, many of its institutions have already proved more susceptible to pressure from the executive than optimists had predicted.
Analysis
The commissioning of this report is a clear indication that the Globalists are extremely worried by the events witnessed in Britain and America in 2016 – the fact that chief globalist Tony Blair’s Institute was chosen to compile the report comes as little surprise.
How many of us knew just how active The Tony Blair Institute have been behind the scenes – not only in research of this kind – but also the extent to which they advise Governments across the globe. (I attach the Links for those of you who wish to research this further).
The report concludes that populism erodes “liberal democracies” (code for Globalism) by using an “us versus them” mentality usually when trust in politicians and institutions is at an all time low as a result of suffering social and economic problems which Governments have failed to address giving rise to feelings of abandonment and resentment.
However, the main part of the report which leapt out at me was this one…….
“An adequate defence of democracy is to undercut the support for populism by identifying and addressing these grievances as well as to defend democratic institutions by opposing populist forces that are out to destroy them.”
I take from this that Tony Blair will advise Governments to “throw the dog a bone” – what do I mean by that – I mean the Institute will chart “populist” areas and the Government of the day will spend money on those areas to “buy back” their loyalty return calm and continue with their Globalist masters bidding.
Is this what Boris Johnson is about to do now that he has seen off both UKIP and the Brexit Party will Boris follow The Blair Institute’s advice and throw a bone to “populist areas” but keep us shackled to the globalist policies by the back door?
I do hope not – but I have my doubts!
https://institute.global/tony-blair/tony-blairs-speech-reuters-newsmaker-event
I wrote my first article for Unity News Network on 30th December 2019, and I have been writing ever since – my library is now well in excess of 200 articles.
Alternative media is essential in these times of unprecedented censorship and mainstream bias, which has ramped up exponentially during the past 2 years. The overton window of “acceptable opinion” is growing every narrower.
Having a citizen’s log, cataloguing the twists and turns of life during these turbulent times is essential.
Thank you Unity News Network for allowing me a voice on your platform.
