Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

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Politics against Democracy 47 can be summed up in the question: is it the case, in addition to having renounced their mission to protect citizens and having dismantled the old mass parties, that political leaderships have also facilitated the rise of populist challengers not only through the anti-political and anti-pluralist stances inherent in various organizational and institutional innovations, but also in their use of the discourses and attitudes encapsulated in Margaret Canovan’s term ‘politicians’ populism’ (Canovan, 1981)? Populists have developed their ambiguous democratic fundamentalism by exploiting the failures of democracy. Likewise, for its part, the postdemocratic model has been developed and applied by using the supposed failures of democracy as a motivating factor. There would thus appear to be a mutually reinforcing effect at work. If populists disdain the rights of the individual and those of minorities, it is also the case that more conventional actors also now, albeit in less dramatic ways, share the same intolerance of political pluralism and of the concept of politics as encounter, debate and discussion − and all the intricacies and slowness that this concept entails. Moreover, these actors do not shirk, again albeit in less bellicose terms, from resorting to the rhetoric of ‘the people’ and from using anti-political gestures aimed at replacing more genuine forms of citizen involvement (Mair, 2002: 81–98). Three elements stand out above all others in this discussion. The first is the propensity to deny, or dilute, all political divisions. Official politics has discovered a non-partisan vocation which delegitimizes political pluralism and nourishes itself with appeals to the rassemblement, thus devaluing even the basic distinction between Right and Left. The second element consists of the repeated condemnations of the useless intrigues and disputes of politics, of its poor morality, and of its distance from citizens – both in a democratic sense (i.e. the charge that the people are no longer sovereign) and in terms of the deep and resolute negligence of the struggles faced by the common man. Obviously, those levelling such criticisms aim first and foremost to attract the attention of the media, only then to accuse them of aggravating political problems through spectacularization. The third and final element is that of the dramatization by politicians of their public presence, which begins with their private lives (to demonstrate that they too are ‘of the people’ and not of the Establishment) and extends to their often flaunted scorn of the official practices of politics, manifested in awkward attempts to fraternize with citizens and their emphasis of the non-professional nature of their political activity. There are numerous potential examples of this, but one can suffice: that of Tony Blair who, having renamed his party ‘New’ Labour, was struck by an irrepressible intoxication with popular sovereignty. Thus, having broken the old link with the trade unions, the party adopted primaries. Moreover, Blair promotes an image of himself as a non-conventional politician, intent on making politics noble once more by restoring its morality and by placing
48 Twenty-First Century Populism the people at the centre of a political discourse full of references to the community, but also with non-partisan policy preferences and goals. Of course, we should note that, in Blair’s view, moral principles take precedence over the views of the people expressed in surveys or through public protests, as his reaction to the weight of feeling against British involvement in Iraq demonstrates (Mair, 2000). It seems appropriate therefore to ask, in conclusion, whether it is not the case that conventional leaderships have in fact fomented the anti-political scepticism of citizens and played a crucial role in discrediting politics? This being so, might it also therefore be the case then that the spectacular and disingenuous manner in which conventional leaderships have portrayed both themselves and democracy has provoked that poisoning of the public view of democracy which, more than anything else, new populists take advantage of?
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Editorial matter, selection, introd
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7 Switzerland: Yet Another Populist
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11 France: The FRONT NATIONAL, Ethn
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13 The Republic of Ireland: The Dog
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Bibliography Akkerman, T. Anti-immi
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226 Bibliography BNP (2005) Rebuild
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228 Bibliography Dahl, R. A. (1999)
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230 Bibliography Germani, G. (1975)
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232 Bibliography Ivaldi, G. Le Fron
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234 Bibliography Lehingue, P. (2003
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236 Bibliography Mazzoleni, G. (200
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238 Bibliography Pelinka, A. (2005)
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240 Bibliography Schedler, A. Anti-
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242 Bibliography Trechsel, A. H. (2
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246 Index Chirac, Jacques 58, 168,
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248 Index Jagers, Jan 58 Jansson, M
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250 Index Plato 200 Poland 62, 120
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