Populism
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Strongman leaders operate in a ‘grey zone’ between democracy and authoritarianism, their distinctively ‘strong’ governing style being as much a strategy to maintain electoral support as it is a means of neutralizing political opposition. Strongman politics is defined most clearly by the tendency of leaders to conjure up the image of a vilified ‘other’, an enemy within or an enemy without, which is used to play on people’s fears and stoke resentment. Whether this ‘other’ is migrants, rich elites, secular liberals or the bullying West, it allows the strongman to portray himself (or herself ) as the defender of the nation and take bold and assertive action to that end. While many believe that strongman politics is driven essentially by personal ambition and tends towards tyranny and the flouting of conventional political norms, others argue that it satisfies a longing for more decisive leadership and amounts to a rejection of the politics of compromise and dithering.
KEY FIGURE
VIKTOR ORBAN (BORN 1963) A Hungarian political leader, Viktor Orban has been the prime minister of Hungary since 2010, having previously served as premier during 1998–2002. A founding member in 1988 of the national conservative party, Fidesz, Orban has been the party’s president since 1993, with a break between 2000 and 2003. In a controversial speech in 2014, Orban condemned ‘Western’ political systems based on liberal values and accountability, praising instead ‘Eastern’ systems based on a strong state, a weak opposition and limited checks and balances. While Orban’s self-styled ‘system of national cooperation’ has attracted criticism, not least by the EU, for its failure adequately to protect individual rights and democratic controls, he has exerted influence within parts of the EU for a more robust stance on immigration, based, in part, on a defence of ‘Christian civilization’. (See Chapter 12, for a discussion of the link between religion and ideology.)
Antoine Gyori/Corbis News/ Getty Images
The far-right By virtue of its link to authoritarianism, right-wing populism is often seen to be part of the far-right (also sometimes called the radical right) , placing it on the political spectrum between the mainstream right (conservatism) and the extreme right (fascism). However,
the far-right encompasses tensions and internal divisions, and by no means are all of its manifestations populist in character. Far-right parties such as the Freedom Parties in Austria and the Netherlands, the Italian League and Alternative for Germany have a clear populist orientation based on the claim to support the ‘common man’. Other parties, notably the Sweden Democrats and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, have consolidated their far-right identity by disavowing extremism and strengthening their commitment to electoral politics. In the USA, the far-right is associated with a disparate collection of groups commonly referred to as the alt-right (an abbreviation for ‘alternative right’), which gained considerable impetus from Donald Trump’s bid for the White House in 2016, as well as later clashes with the burgeoning rival movement for racial justice. Nevertheless, the tendency of alt-right groups such as the Proud Boys to reject mainstream conservatism outright and to support implicit or explicit racism (see p. 162), in the form of white nationalism , suggests that they may be more accurately classified as neo-fascists or neo-Nazis, rather than as populists.
Far-right: A right-wing ideological stance that is characterized by ethno- nationalism, laissez-faire capitalism (anti-socialism) and ultraconservative or reactionary moral values. Extremism: A stance that goes significantly beyond what, in mainstream politics, is deemed to be reasonable or acceptable. White nationalism: A form of nationalism which seeks to establish an ethno-state of, and for, white people; sometimes seen as a quest for white supremacy.
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