THE YELLOW Vest protests continue, and the chattering classes in the Western world keep bringing up a certain word to describe and define it. This word is “Populism.”
Populism may broadly be defined as any political movement which caters to the demands and desires of the general populace or at least a large section thereof. It is also the label used by many political analysts and commentators to describe the rise of various controversial leaders like Trump, Bolsonaro, Obrador, Salvini and, of course, Duterte. These men rose to power because they ran on populist or seemingly populist platforms, and such platforms are regarded as anathema by many elites.
Populism is what happens when an incumbent elite fails to serve the demands of its populace. It’s essentially a modern, soft peasant’s revolt against elites who are either unable or unwilling to address the demands of their people.
However, despite the powerful emotional energy that populism inspires, it is a limited thing in and of itself. Populism may have energy but without an elite to harness and focus that energy, it will eventually fizzle out.
When the average man on the street starts rising up, what he has is a set of demands and complaints. What he does not have is a plan that will allow him to achieve those demands. He can protest or vote as much as he wants, but ultimately, he and others like him do not have the tools, the connections or the training to realize what they want.
The best they can do is to put another elite in place or at the very least, remove those elites who are the source of most of their troubles. After they have done these things, they will just have to hope that the next set of leaders will serve their interests. If not then the whole process may repeat itself all over again, except worse.
The opposite of populism (or any mass socio-political movement for that matter) is aristocracy. Aristocrats create plans, strategies and systems. They are the people who harness the energy generated by populism. Where populists express demands, aristocrats and elites create solutions.
And because populism is a revolt against unresponsive or corrupt elites, what populists really want are counter elites, who are responsive to their demands and desires. This is why many world leaders fear the populist movements which seem to be popping up every year. It is a symptom that the world’s leadership castes are obsolete.
In the West, leaders like Macron, Merkel and the various establishment figures in the Republican and Democrat parties are also doing what they can to hold on to power. But, as far as the world’s populists are concerned, the demand remains the same: “We want new leaders.” (jdr456@gmail.com/PN)
