What is populism and how is it shaping global politics?

Even if France's populist candidate Marine Le Pen doesn't win in the election, her movement isn't going away. It's part of a global trend. Read the full transcript below.

NOTE: This video incorrectly identifies Sheri Berman as a political science professor at Barnard University. The institution is actually Barnard College.

TRANSCRIPT
Friday, May 5, 2017

SHERI BERMAN, Barnard University: Populism can be very hard to define because it varies from national context to national context.

The one thing that parties, movements, politicians who are described as populists tend to share is this insistence that traditional elites and institutions are ignoring the demands and the needs of the masses. There’s a very “us versus them” quality to populism.They’re really a consequence of other parties and institutions failures, rather than the cause of them.

With left wing populists, the enemy is tends to be a sort of financial or business type of elite. In a lot of other countries, the enemy may be immigrants, people who look different than us, people who think different than us.

The social and economic problems that Europe is currently grappling with started decades ago and have sort of gradually increased over time. So what we really had was this kind of conflation of economic and social problems that really I think, push a lot of voters to embrace radical change.

The upcoming French elections provide us with a great prism through which to understand the meaning and the rise of populism. Marine Le Pen who represents the national front has turned herself into an incredibly powerful figure.

MARINE LE PEN, National Front candidate for president: The time has come to free the French people of the arrogant elite who seek to tell you how to live your life. Because, yes, I am the candidate of the people.

BERMAN: Should Macron win and not manage to convince voters afterwards that his program can actually solve their problems; we should expect her to come back in the next presidential election even stronger.

Germany, along with France remains the main player, the main power in Europe so what happens there really has a huge impact outside of the country’s borders.

ALEXANDER GAULAND, Alternative for Germany co-leader: We want to keep our home country, keep our identity, and we are proud to be German.

BERMAN: The populist right, the Alternative for Germany, was just a few months ago predicted to do quite well at the national elections. Now it seems to have declined, somewhat partially due to infighting.

Historically of course, because of Germany’s past, there’s been a real barrier to the rise of far right populism in Germany. So the fact that we’re even seeing seeds of it, is really a reflection of how deeply the structural shifts in European political life go.

The Netherlands, the populist there was predicted to come out on top. Even though Wilders did not win, he did manage to increase his vote. So, I wouldn’t take the election result as a sign of absolute defeat but a sign that we have to continue to worry about the underlying trends that fed the rise of these parties.

It’s much more dangerous in a way in places like Poland and Hungary because the institutions and the norms of democracy are much weaker and therefore much easier to maneuver around or even overthrow.

The real danger with populism, right, is that it shifts from populism to authoritarianism. We’ve seen that happen in Hungary, we’ve seen that happen in Turkey. It also of course happened in Venezuela. And people are very worried about something like that happening in a place like Poland.

But if we think about populism as a consequence of rising dissatisfaction and the inability of elites and institutions to deal with it; then there could potentially be a silver lining in populism.
Populists tend to raise issues that a lot of people are concerned about. They tend to focus on problems that are not being addressed. If traditional elites and institutions can look and say hey we better figure out better ways of dealing with these issues and concerns, then populists will have performed oddly enough a kind of backhanded service.

If not, we can expect the populists to continue to grow in support, and probably the problems not to be absolutely addressed.

[Dwigs]

Gloria Alvarez, a modent and prominent latin american liberterian leader, made a fantastic book about populiss. It's a highly recommended reading if anyone is interested in this political movement.

[mischa]

Populism is VOX POPULI. Voice of the people!

[AlphaOmega-znmd]

You help me a lot with information on my essay. <3

[MrWarir]

that was really informative.
thank you so much for this video.

[jjt]

There are not many studies of populism, but the best so far has been done by Princeton prof. Jan-Werner Müller. According to Müller’s studies, populist politicians do not defend democracy, but identity politics and power politics. Within that definition, for example, Bernie Sanders would not be a populist. Democratic people accept the basic claim that “the people” is not just them or the ones who think like them, but that there are others who do not think like them that are also the people. Populists do not accept that claim. They talk about the “real people”, who they allegedly represent, but consider that anyone who is not with that group or criticizes them is not part of the real people and they should not count (e.g. real Americans vs. liberals, minorities, immigrants, pluralists, democrats, etc.) . On the other hand, criticizing the elites is not enough to be labeled a populist. For example, Bernie Sanders does criticize elites and stands for the common man, but he does not defend that the common man is the “real people”, just a huge section of the electorate that does not have a say in politics. He does not stand for “them vs. us”, but for integration and social justice. That is not a populist message, but a democratic one. Populists are antielitists, but also antipluralists (and in the end, also antidemocratic). They claim that they and they alone represent the people. All other political competitors are illegitimate, and do not belong to ‘the people’. (see Trump message of real Americans vs. immigrants, democrats, liberals, etc. whereas Bernie has never said that) Bernie Sanders, does not defend that only average citizens are the real people, but that their interests (i.e. those of workers, minorities, women, etc) are not being taken into account in politics and that must be changed. Of course, there can be left-wing populism too (e.g. Maduro), but Bernie does not belong to that trend at all. If he were to become president, he would take into account the interests of all Americans through a framework of social and legal justice, but not through a disenfranchisement of the legal or political rights of those who oppose his politics. Compare that with, for example, Venezuela’s Maduro, in which the very same constitution is designed to perpetuate his hold on power by disenfranchising large sections of the population who oppose his rule and whose political discourse consists exclusively on blaming all problems on foreign actors and traitors. There is huge difference between such an antidemocratic stance and Bernie Sanders’ politics. However, this video does not make that difference because their definition is flawed.

[Moonbearchop]

Populism well and fairly explained.
The true threat of populism, especially in established liberal democratic politics, is that it refuses and undermines the compromises within the political arena. This is important because the politics without discussion, compromise between different interest groups and transparent process is nothing but authoritarianism.
However, this is not always the case. E.g. if a country is already suffering from authoritarianism, populism can be an emancipatory political idea, which have been seen in many latin america's left wing populists.
Right wing populism within the liberal democratic country? Straight way to authoritarianism.

[thomasanderson]

Vote the elite, let the elite continue to treat you as a fool

[johnnyboy]

Populism is a strange name as by diffintion isnt that what democracy is about?who gets the most votes, being more popular?

[kopibin]

This is awesomely useful. One thing: the narrator's sound quality is poor

[clecollins]

This is what I hear, "I am not rich. I am a politician. Make me rich because I cannot do it myself."

[glue]

that is not what right wing populism is and that's not what Trump's presidency is about

[abnerandreymartinezzamudio]

Your background music is louder than your voice

[TheReviewSpace]

Italy is starting to really get it, but they have much work to do. Canada is also another country that requires more populism. When you flood Europe and other developed nations with outsiders, it can be extremely difficult to deal with the criminal & cultural elements that some of those migrants can bring.

[temistogen]

What the hell is wrong with Greece on this map???

[drchunkybiscuit]

Trump is the greatest President EVER!!! #KAG2020

[lafsp]

Populism is wrong look below your skin we all have white bones red blood the country were you came from doesn't matter only thing that does matter is the person who you are. We humans can only be strong if we work together help each other the best way to do that is by social democratic support