Understanding populism

There are many definition of populism. The word implies listening to the people. But it has a rather negative connotation. Sometimes this concerns despicable policies like preaching hate towards minorities. At other times it concerns irresponsible policies like spending too much.

Yet that doesn’t catch why people feel attracted to populists. People motivated enough by hatred to make it determine their vote are rare. And some mainstream politicians spend as if there is no tomorrow too.

The real reason why people nowadays vote for politicians who are painted as populists is that they feel that the mainstream politicians ignore their interests.

In our time the mainstream political parties have become increasingly similar. The Washington Censensus, the World Economic Forum and the increasing power of banks and financial institutions have resulted in a long list of requirements for politicians before they are considered “salon fähig“ and acceptable to govern their country.

Populists don’t gain access to power by winning the acceptance of their colleagues. Instead they build their own power base among the public. That makes them invulnerable to the kind of attacks that would derail mainstream politicians who break the codes. Often such populists have a sharp edge - like the racism of the FN and the AfD and the vulgarity of Trump. But as long that isn’t too bad many people are happy to ignore that. They know themselves: everyone sometimes uses rude language or makes generalizations about some ethnic group. Those mainstream norms are more about virtue signalling than about real intentions. From that point of view the fact that politicians do not publicly adhere to them can also be seen as a positive signal that they are not sellouts who will do anything to be accepted by the elite.

Populist policies have some problems of their own. They often face serious obstacles in the form of courts or parliamentary opposition. In those cases it is seductive to take shortcuts that are either bad policy or harm the democratic order. Another problem is that when so much power is vested in one person he may indulge in policies that most people consider weird or wrong. Hitler’s obsession with the Jews was not shared by most of the German population.