The spread of populism has coincided with a decline in faith in democracy across the western world, but how interlinked are the two phenomena?  A new paper from Stanford suggests a strong connection.

The paper argues that the populists tendency to discredit formal institutions is resulting in significant harm being caused to democracy, as whilst governmental institutions are not without blame, the extent of the attack causes unnecessary damage.

As befitting a political problem, the authors propose a political solution.  They believe that populism has risen in large part because of the failure of mainstream parties to successfully meet the concerns voters have.

Change from the norm

The report highlights how many voters across Europe and the United States want a break from politics as usual, and are turning to populists to deliver that.  They express discontent with politicians who they regard as unresponsive and unaccountable, and believe they have not responded to concerns around things such as free trade, international cooperation and immigration.

They are equally in no doubt about the harm populist politicians do to democratic institutions, however, as a common tactic is to decry such institutions as corrupt creations of a crooked elite.  The undermining of everything from the legal system to the press and intelligence services erodes their effectiveness, and more importantly the faith people have in them.

What’s more, their claim that they represent ‘the people’ often requires them to define who exactly ‘the people’ are.  This typically requires an in group and an out group to be formed, thus excluding vulnerable and marginalized groups.

The solution largely rests in the hands of the public each time they cast their votes.  By backing parties and politicians who make credible promises and who are committed to democratic systems and institutions, they can help consign populists to the margins.  To do this, however, we first need to understand why people back populists in the first place.

In the longer term, the authors urge political parties to do a better job differentiating themselves and being more responsive to their voters.  They also need to both articulate and uphold the democratic rules of the game.  The data suggests that when mainstream political parties are strong, populists tend to be weak.

Of course, when the mainstream parties themselves veer dangerously towards populism, there become fewer rational alternatives to plump for, and democracies get ever further down the rabbit hole.  In democracies where the number of choices are relatively few, it’s a difficult situation to extricate oneself from.