Britain s Populist Fantasies

Evo Morales and the Populist Paradox

I've borrowed the hackneyed old populist slogan

The first two falsehoods deceptions as large as I can remember witnessing during an election campaign are being peddled by the country s two most successful populist parties the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP).

Beppe Grillo s populist Five Star Movement emerged with 25 of the popular vote the highest support for any single party. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, confounding those who had forecast his political demise, re emerged at the head of a populist rightist coalition that ended up only 0.3 percentage points away from winning.

The first at least is populist, and the second is elitist.

The first at least is populist, and the second is elitist.

Two types of contemporary populist, however, stand out the ultra rich business tycoon and the clown. In the Anglo Saxon media world, Rupert Murdoch, owner of far too many newspapers, TV stations, and movie studios, is a typical populist tycoon.

That 29 is about 15 more than populist right wing parties get in very good years (for them) in other European countries. Strache, the leader of the Freedom Party, wants the government to create a new ministry to manage the deportation of immigrants.

Deliberately populist media efforts have succeeded in mischaracterizing security problems as well as the victims of insecurityy.

Elsewhere, populist anti European parties of the right have been gaining ground with campaigns directed against immigrants and minorities, especially Muslims. This has fueled concern that the populist bloc will be the largest in the European Parliament after next year s EU wide election.

The People s Committee s position deserves explanation, if not agreement. Since the turn of the century, Thaksin s party machines, powered by his populist policies, have overcome constant challenges from both the military and the Constitutional Court to beat the conservative royalist Democrats in every election.

Similarly, while Alan García won in Peru, he does not come from a hard left party that has finally seen the light (like Lula da Silva in Brazil, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, and Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay). His APRA party, founded by Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre in the 1920 s, is one of the region s oldest and most anachronistic populist organizations.

The demagogic, populist reform of Pétion followed, during which the large properties were in the hands of senior officers.

Unfortunately, the presidential candidates plans for the BCB fall short of what is required. Historically, Rousseff s Workers Party (PT) has resisted giving the bank formal autonomy, and she has played a distinctly populist card during the campaign, arguing that BCB autonomy would hand too much control to private bankers.

Instead, a populist nationalist revolution might resemble the attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, or a Russian version of Ukraine s Orange Revolution. It might be some sort of democratic nationalist revolution spontaneous, and not made by any one political party but by a popular mass movement.

But the alternative could be worse a populist backlash that destroys much of what Mexico has achieved over the last two decades.

Neither the DPJ nor the LDP appears dependable in any of these areas. As a result, the public is paying increasing attention to the newly created Japan Restoration Party (JRP) and its populist leader, Osaka City Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a former governor of Osaka prefecture and the son of a minor Yakuza (mafioso).

We rejected the tendency to equate asylum seekers with criminals, even terrorists, and deplored the harmful exploitation of this confusion by certain populist elements.

At the same time, the main alternative candidates on the left and right have positioned themselves too far toward the extremes to recapture the center easily. On the left is Amir Peretz of the Labor party, a populist and trade union federation leader with little national leadership experience and even less familiarity with security matters.

Likewise, her invitations to the White House are being used for populist messaging. Who came over to watch the White House chef with Mrs. Obama?

There is more interest in Sarkozy s populist ideas about currency intervention and adding a new political dimension to monetary policy decisions than is commonly realized.

Correcting these policy failures is made more difficult by the rise of populist political forces. The National Front in France, the United Kingdom Independence Party, and far right anti immigration parties in Sweden, Denmark, and Italy are picking up votes and shutting down informed public debate on a tough policy question that has no easy answers.

Italy s parliament is divided among three mutually incompatible political forces, with none strong enough to rule alone. Worse, one of these forces, which won 25 of the vote, is an anti euro populist party, while another, a Euro skeptic group led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, received close to 30 support, giving anti euro parties a clear majority.

Can the French really violate their values to such an extent? Will re introduction of the death penalty be the next step on this populist downward spiral?

Such populist measures are vote winners. The civil rights of small religious minorities do not matter much politically the perceived rights of animals (and economic motivations) do.

When Tamil Nadu s chief minister at the time, the film star M.G. Ramachandran, introduced free school meals statewide, the measure was widely criticized as populist and fiscally irresponsible.

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All the largest political parties (Pro Patria Union, the Reform Party, the United People's Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party) have women's associations.

The tone of populist movements, whether in Europe, Asia, or the US, would suggest that the elites are too powerful, that they dominate the little people, whose voices are drowned out by the liberals, the multiculturalists, and the city slickers. This is a common form of populist paranoia, promoted in the US by radio talk show hosts and Fox television, and in Europe by men like Wilders.

Despite Erdoğan s personal authoritarian tendencies, which are obvious, it would be misleading to regard the current protests purely as a conflict between democracy and autocracy. After all, the success of Erdoğan s populist Justice and Development Party, as well as the increasing presence of religious symbols and customs in public life, is a result of more democracy in Turkey, not less.

SANTIAGO Latin America has a new export populist backlash. It first landed on the warm and receptive shores of the Mediterranean, nurturing support for Greece s Syriza and Spain s Podemos.

The populist challenge to the pro market, pro Western elite consensus that has prevailed in the region since 1990 takes two forms an anti corruption drive and de communization.

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The US also developed a particular populist belief that gun ownership constitutes a vital protection against government tyranny. The US was born in a citizens revolt against British imperial power.

But if Japan s deepening nationalist mood leads to symbolic and populist positions that win votes at home but antagonize its neighbors, both Japan and the world will be worse off.

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Party autonomy

Republican Party

Party On!

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