Populists are portrayed as ruthless manipulators of public opinion but when it comes to the charge that some groups really are being left behind and left out they are on strong ground. To really make sense of their appeal we need to look less at the populists and a lot more at our own political systems. As we argue in a new book, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy, co-authored with Roger Eatwell, we need to step back to consider how democracy has evolved and how two specific features have become increasingly visible to citizens, and central to explaining the appeal of populism: rule by an elite and technocratic few, and a growing representation gap.[...]
And this fed too into the post-war rise of international ‘governance’ structures and the gradual diffusion of power away from democratically-elected governments to transnational organisations, non-elected ‘expert’ policymakers and lobbyists. As democracies entered the twenty-first century, supporters of this approach contended that the transfer of power to more remote transnational bodies was necessary because complex issues like economic globalisation or the refugee crisis called for decisions to be made above the nation-state. The answer was ‘more globalisation, not less’, to paraphrase Tony Blair.[...]
Populism is also thriving, at least in part, because of how this longer tradition is today being exacerbated by a second feature, namely a growing representation gap between different groups in society. Certainly, there have been some major achievements in recent years. If you look at legislatures in America, Britain or France then you will see record numbers of women and ethnic minorities in the corridors of power. This should be applauded. But when it comes to others in society, who have also been the most likely to vote for national populists – the working-class and non-graduates – it is an entirely different story.[...]
The representation gap would matter less if these groups thought broadly alike about key issues. But they do not. In both the US and Europe researchers have shown how the growing divide has fuelled an ‘exclusion bias’, skewing the policy-making process towards the better educated and typically more affluent ‘haves’ and away from the less well educated and less secure ‘have nots’.
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