Refoundational Change? Populism against Authoritarian Successor Parties

• In Event: The Roots of Populism in Global Perspective

Abstract

Populist leaders around the world claim to represent “the people” against the members of the elite, who belong to the establishment in their respective countries. In their anti-establishment appeal, populist leaders distinguish themselves from political parties that had previously governed against “the people’s” true interest. They primarily target political parties that have strong roots in an authoritarian era (i.e., military dictatorship, single-party regime) but continue to operate after the transition to democracy, namely authoritarian successor parties (ASPs). As a subtype of ASPs, populist leaders rally their bases against former authoritarian ruling parties (FARPs) and capitalize on the latter’s authoritarian baggage that includes human rights violations, poor economic performance, and unpopular foreign policy outcomes. To theorize on the relationship between populism and ASPs, this paper scrutinizes how do populist leaders promote a victimization narrative to address various injustices under FARPs. In Latin America, it analyzes the populist discourses of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) and Evo Morales (Bolivia) against the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) respectively. As a cross-regional case, the paper also studies Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s (Turkey) antagonistic attitude toward the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Overall, the paper identifies similarities between left-wing populism in Latin America and right-wing populism in Southern Europe/Middle East in terms of rewriting history and offering refoundational change. In the case of Mexico, López Obrador claims to inaugurate “the Fourth Transformation” whereas Morales and Erdoğan call the new era “the Change Process” and “the New Turkey.”

Author

• Dilara Hekimci, Florida International University