A Tale of Two Populisms

• In Event: 4166 - Democracy on the Defense: Rising Authoritarianism and Populism

Abstract

In the 2000s, the middle class in Manila responded to the rise of populist political candidates with calls to limit democracy. These were candidates who appealed mainly to the Philippine masses; their populism drew a line between rich and poor. Segments of the middle class advocated disenfranchising the poor through various measures as a way of checking what they saw as their bad political choices. I will argue that their disenchantment with democracy prepared the way for a new kind of populism, one that emphasized law-and-order and drew the line between law-abiding citizens on the one hand and rule-breakers or benders on the other; the corrupt, criminal, and insurgent. This is the populism of Rodrigo Duterte, and it appeals to both the middle class and the masses. If democracy made the first kind of populism possible, frustration with democracy led to the second. This trajectory yields insights about the complicated and variable relationship between populism and democracy. It compels us to distinguish between varieties of populism, their respective constituencies, and the social situations that bring them about. It shows that in developing country contexts characteristically marked by great social inequality more than one kind of populism is possible.

Author

• Marco Z. Garrido, University of Chicago