Me the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy by Nadia Urbinati

Author:Nadia Urbinati
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Political Science, History & Theory, Political Ideologies, Democracy, Fascism & Totalitarianism, Philosophy, Political
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2019-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

The Party of a Part

Populist parties and leaders “generally represent authoritarian understandings of democracy, but ultimately are not against it, are wrongly equated with dictatorial formation.”64 Finchelstein writes that populism after 1945 “morphed from an ideology and a style of protest movement to a power regime”: this is what happened with Péron.65 At that point, its similarities to, and differences from, fascism became visible. Like fascism, populism becomes truly influential when it passes from ideology to power. But unlike fascism, this transition does not consist in regime change or dictatorship, though it may consist in a constitutional change that deflates the lawmaking power of the parliament and increases the power of the executive. Like fascism, populism is essentially concerned with reconstructing the unity of the masses. Unlike fascism, the leader embodying that concern is never completely above the law. The blurred edge between populism and fascism is made evident not only by the charismatic understanding of the leader but also by the party form. This form is a truly intriguing aspect of populism: it makes it eccentric in comparison with party democracy in a way that is both similar to and yet quite distant from fascism. The authoritarian mode of populism remains in the form of symbolic representation, and this representation uses elections and the media as devices for keeping the popular acceptance always alive. “What matters is always the alignment of wills between ruler and ruled.”66

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