When Populism Meets Nationalism: Reflections on Parties in Power by Alberto Martinelli

Author:Alberto Martinelli [Martinelli, Alberto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788867059003
Amazon: B07Q3XVDHB
Barnesnoble: B07Q3XVDHB
Goodreads: 44803322
Publisher: Ledizioni
Published: 2018-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

Populism and nationalism are political phenomena tightly linked with each other, irrespective of the fact that the former is a thick ideology and the latter only a thin one. An overview of the CEE region’s parties demonstrates that populism and nationalism display an overlap, i.e. all parties considered “populist” display a nationalist component and many of them simultaneously unveil populist elements. This Eastern European nationalism manifests itself in different forms: it almost always has an economic component; it recently acquired an anti-EU flavour; at times (though clearly less frequently) it exhibits aggressive racial or ethnic hatred oriented at minorities or ethnic groups from neighbouring countries.

The “core populist” elements – belief in the superiority of “the people”, contempt for the allegedly corrupted elite, disbelief in representative institutions – are universally present as its constitutive components, but especially during electoral campaigns and/or among smaller, irrelevant parties that are unlikely to form part of governing coalitions. The rapid change with which successful political parties abandon part or most of the populist policy repertoire (even if their discourse remains populist) is visible in most instances, be it in the Bulgarian Simeon II Movement, the Polish PiS, or the Hungarian Fidesz.

Finally, nationalism is firmly linked to “core” populism, yet simplicism is definitely more so. Moreover, simplicism seems to better explain the electoral linkage between supporters and the so-called “populist” parties. So far I have presented data only for Poland and a lot of further theorising is needed to ontologically defend “simplicism” as an independent phenomenon from core populism, one that is likely to have an important impact on what happens in politics. To be sure, simplicism should be treated as a method of communication between the elites and the masses, and as a political linkage based on the assumption that the surrounding world, politics, and economy are simple. A more detailed explanation of simplicism deserves a separate paper, which hopefully will follow soon.

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