Populism in Power and as a Regime

• In Event: Populism, Power, Accountability, and Opposition (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

Instead of looking for the right definition of populism I propose following Nadia Urbinati that we should focus on what populism does once in power. When populist get elected, they follow similar playbooks: concentration of power in the presidency; manufacturing of enemies in the media, civil society, and in the political system; regime change by constitution making or reform; assuming that a leader embodies the right people. When populists in power are able to bring constitutional change, tame the media, civil society, and universities, they become a different type of regime. Populist regimes combine the democratic logic that elections give legitimacy with autocratic practices based on Schmittian conceptions of politics, and constructs of the people-as-one: the people is imagined as sharing an identity, interests, and forming a collective body. Populist regimes are unstable, they evolve towards dictatorship as Maduro in Venezuela, or revert to electoral democracies.

Author

• Carlos de la Torre, University of Florida