The Populist Challenge

Author(s):  
William A. Galston

This chapter looks at how the politics of blame provides fertile ground for demagogues who know how to play on people's hopes and fears. Their message is typically some form of populism: the people are virtuous; the elites are corrupt; the subtleties of experts should be set aside and ordinary citizens' common sense should be relied upon. Demagogues frequently begin by working within the political system, but all too often they and their followers come to regard democratic institutions as part of the problem. When times are hard, different social and economic groups in modern polities struggle with one another, each striving to minimize its losses. Elected governments mirror these divisions, making it hard for them to act effectively. Temporizing and dithering further stoke public discontent.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
abdul muiz amir

This study aims to find a power relation as a discourse played by the clerics as the Prophet's heir in the contestation of political event in the (the elections) of 2019 in Indonesia. The method used is qualitative based on the critical teory paradigm. Data gathered through literary studies were later analyzed based on Michel Foucault's genealogy-structuralism based on historical archival data. The findings show that, (1) The involvement of scholars in the Pemilu-Pilpres 2019 was triggered by a religious issue that has been through online social media against the anti-Islamic political system, pro communism and liberalism. Consequently create two strongholds from the scholars, namely the pro stronghold of the issue pioneered by the GNPF-Ulama, and the fortress that dismissed the issue as part of the political intrigue pioneered by Ormas NU; (2) genealogically the role of scholars from time to time underwent transformation. At first the Ulama played his role as well as Umara, then shifted also agent of control to bring the dynamization between the issue of religion and state, to transform into motivator and mediator in the face of various issues Practical politic event, especially at Pemilu-Pilpres 2019. Discussion of the role of Ulama in the end resulted in a reduction of the role of Ulama as the heir of the prophet, from the agent Uswatun Hasanah and Rahmatan lil-' ālamīn as a people, now shifted into an agent that can trigger the division of the people.


Author(s):  
Henrik P. Bang

Habermas is widely criticized for adumbrating an essentialist, deliberative, and consensual approach to democracy that neglects the significance and importance of contingency, conflict, and emotions in the struggle for hegemony and collective identification. However, his conception of system and lifeworld raise the claim that no society could exist without providing for a minimal degree of political cooperation between professional actors in the political system and spontaneously acting laypeople in the social lifeworld. Contingency, conflict, and emotions are obviously at play in this political conception of how to ground system and lifeworld in mutual relations of power, knowledge, trust, and respect. The goal is not to reach a stable consensus or succumb to conflict and chaos but to avoid that system becomes uncoupled from lifeworld, thus undermining the reciprocal connection between political authorities and laypeople required to make and implement authoritative decisions which are ‘for', ‘of', ‘with', and ‘by' ‘the people'.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-519
Author(s):  
Pascal D. König ◽  
Markus B. Siewert

Why don’t citizens give governments credit when they deliver on electoral pledges? This article develops an original analytical framework that addresses this important but under-researched question. It focuses on the concept of ‘credit claiming’, which is the opposite of ‘blame shifting’, and draws together existing research to identify a number of significant hurdles that governments must overcome in order to gain recognition for achievements. It highlights the challenges which policymakers face in communicating with citizens in an increasingly mediatised public sphere, and the extent to which their credit claiming efforts rely on the media as a ‘transmission belt’. It concludes that in liberal democracies governments are fighting an uphill battle to gain citizens’ support and secure trust in broader democratic institutions and the political system as a whole.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-784
Author(s):  
Branko Smerdel

Democracies are at risk to be strangled by the populist demagogues, posturing as the only and true leaders of 'the people', while disregarding constitutional "structure of liberty", meaning that, the parliamentary supremacy, judicial review and, above all, the constitutional limits to the very direct decision making by the voters' constituencies. Referenda are being used ever more, often to push certain decision, which could not pass the parliament. The claim is that there must not be any limits to the power of the people. That phenomenon the most esteemed liberal magazine "The Economist" nicknamed coining the word "referendumania", apparently combining 'a mania' with 'referenda'. It has been received with a lot of sympathy by the general public, in circumstances when the television and the Internet shows all the misery of the numerous assemblies, not only in a new but also in the mature democracies. After the referendum on the Brexit has been used as an instrument of the political struggle in the mother of parliaments, Great Britain, which lead to the ongoing "melting down" of the highly valued British political system, it seems that the worst of prophecies are realized by advancing populist forces in a number of Euroepan states. Republic of Croatia has been for a long time exposed to such treats, by the political groups extremely opposed to governmental policies, first by the Catholic conservatives and most recently by the trade unionists. Due to the very inadequate regulation of the referenda on civil initiatives, whereas the decision is to be made by a majority of those who vote, without any quorum being provided, the posibilites of manipulation are enormous. In the lasting confusion, a number of politicians has already proclaimed their intention, if elected the president of the Republic, to use such a referendum in order to remove all the checks and balances between the chief of state and "the people". Taking such treats very seriously in the existing crisis of democracy, the author emphasizes hi plead for an interparty agreement which would enable the referendum to be properly regulated and thus incorporated into the system of a democratic constitutional democracy.


1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-127
Author(s):  
N.G.E. Harris

In 1955 Professor H. L. A. Hart put forward the claim that ‘if there are any moral rights at all, it follows that there is at least one natural right, the equal right of all men to be free’, and this thesis and the arguments he adduces in its support have been thought sufficiently important for the article to be reprinted in a recent book of readings on political philosophy for students and general readers. The truth of Hart's thesis as stated is clearly meant to be independent of the moral stance of the asserter. Yet to my mind it is untenable as it stands, and could be modified only at the expense of taking up a particular moral position.England has long been fertile ground for scholars (usually American) concerned to locate the antecedents of stable and democratic government. More often than not they have stressed a particular configuration of attitudes as a basic support for such government. Evaluation of the consequences for the political system of these attitudes has frequently proceeded along very inferential and impressionistic lines, and has resulted in a benign view of the British political system.


2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Nelson

A theory of democratic institutions should provide us with a coherent combination of definition and justification. It should explain how it defines democratic institutions and also how they will or should function; but it also should explain why democracy, so understood, is desirable. We are all familiar with stories about the fiscal excesses to which democracies are prone, stories about the ignorance of voters, and stories about the venality of legislators. Some of us may also be suspicious of concepts such as “consent” or “the will of the people” associated with traditional arguments for democracy. Against this background, the current interest in deliberative democracy seems promising. This conception of democracy does not rely, for example, on the idea of rational and knowledgeable voters satisfying preferences they have independent of the political process. Nor does it rely on any notion of an independent popular will. Instead, it offers a picture of the democratic process as one in which men and women engage in constructive discussion, seeking a principled resolution of their differences and developing, over time, a conception of the terms on which they will live with one another.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 389
Author(s):  
Lukman Santoso

Abstract: Pakistan, since independence, there are differences of opinion among the Muslims of Pakistan consisting of secularists, moderate Islamists about how should the implementation of the Islamic politics in Pakistan, giving rise to a prolonged political crisis when today. Pakistan's political turmoil unending birth Pakistani women politicians and thinkers, namely Benazir Bhutto. This paper will focus on the study of Benazir Bhutto thinking about the relationship between Islam and democration in Pakistan. Based on the results of the study, there are some findings: First, Benazir with thoughts that category substantivistik and relatively conflict with Muslim-majority Pakistan (traditionalists and fundamentalists), the ideas in tune with existence, articulation, and a manifestation of Islamic values are intrinsic in the climate modern democrations. Second, the idea of Benazir is a counter discourse to the idea that idealized which Islam should be the political system. Benazir thinking is in line with the paradigm who saw that Islam does not lay down a standard pattern of the theory of the political system must be organized by the people, except for the values and ethical principles. الملخص :كانت في باكستان – منذ حرّيتها – خلافات الآراء عند المسلمين بين العلمانيين والمتوسطين والإسلاميين عن كيفية تطبيق السياسة الإسلامية في باكستان حتى أدّت إلى النزاع السياسيّ الطويل إلى الآن. وظهرت في هذه الفترة النزاعية مفكّرة وسياسيّة بينزر بوطو. حاولت هذه المقالة التركيز في دراسة أفكارها عن التصالح الإسلامي والديموقراطية في باكستان. حصلت هذه الدراسة على النتائج : أولا، كانت بينزر بوطو بما لها من أفكار تميل إلى الأصالة وأفكارها متعارضة بأغلبية المسلمين التقاليديين والأصوليين، وكانت أفكارها موافقة بمكانة القيم الإسلامية الأصيلة وتمثيلها وتطبيقها في ضوء الديموقراطية الحديثة. ثانيا إن هذه الأفكار كردّ تجاه الفكرة المؤيّدة ليكون الإسلام أساسا للدولة. كانت هذه الأفكار تواكب بفكرة أن الإسلام لا يضع نظرية معيّنة لبناء الدولة يعتنقها المسلمون إلا الأسس العامة فقط  والقيم فيها. Abstrak: Pakistan, sejak kemerdekaannya, terdapat perbedaan pendapat dikalangan kaum muslim Pakistan yang terdiri dari kelompok sekular, moderat dan Islamis tentang bagaimana implementasi Islam politik di Pakistan, sehingga menimbulkan kemelut kekuasaan yang berkepanjangan hingga kini. Ditengah kemelut politik Pakistan yang tidak berkesudahan tersebut lahirlah politisi dan pemikir perempuan Pakistan, yakni Benazir Bhutto. Tulisan ini akan memfokuskan kajian pada pemikiran Benazir Bhutto tentang rekonsiliasi Islam dan demokrasi di Pakistan. Berdasarkan hasil kajian, terdapat beberapa temuan, yaitu: Pertama, Benazir dengan pemikirannya yang termasuk kategori substantivistik dan tergolong bertentangan dengan mayoritas muslim Pakistan (tradisionalis dan fundamentalis) ini, gagasannya selaras dengan eksistensi, artikulasi, dan manifestasi nilai-nilai Islam yang instrinsik dalam iklim demokrasi modern. Kedua, gagasan Benazir merupakan counter wacana terhadap pemikiran yang mengidealkan bahwa Islam harus menjadi dasar negara. Pemikiran Benazir ini selaras dengan paradigma yang melihat bahwa Islam tidak meletakkan suatu pola baku tentang teori sistem politik yang harus diselenggarakan oleh umatnya, kecuali nilai-nilai dan prinsip-prinsip etisnya.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Lewicki

FROM REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY TO JUDICIAL DEMOCRACY: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM Summary The article discusses the process in which the judiciary branch has claimed and maintains its supremacy over the other two branches by practicing the extra-constitutional process of judicial review. Prior precedences under the British or colonial rule can hardly be claimed as they were established in a markedly different system in which the tripartite division of power was not as pronounced as it is under the U.S. Constitution. The real culprit is the U.S. Congress which refrains from making clear rules in controversial matters, such as abortion. The Supreme Court swiftly moved into the void to the point where the beliefs of nine nominated Justices outweigh the views of over five hundred elected representatives of the people, to wit: the flag burning controversy. While the learned opinions of nine learned and respected specialists should not be dismissed lightly, it is a far cry from the Founding Fathers’ intention if one person’s preferences can sway the nation’s political system, as is the case when the Court is divided between four liberals and four conservatives. However, lawyers are unlikely to give up the power they have usurped over time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1803-1805
Author(s):  
Dimitar Spaseski

The state has a central place in the political system. Through its structure and positioning the country has the strength to be a unifier of society against its overall division of the various classes and layers, ethnic, cultural and other groups. The legitimacy of all these processes is given by laws that determine the trajectory of all processes and the conditions under which the processes take place. The state, by adopting the highest legal acts such as: the constitution and the laws, achieves one of its most important functions, which is the management of society. The state directs society to promote development, but also punishes and sanction infringements and mistakes. Depending on who exercises power in the state, i.e. whether it belongs to the people, to an individual or to a powerful group, the political system can be determined. The political system in itself includes the overall state relations, the relations in society and the guidelines for the conduct of the policy of the state. A state in which the government is elected by the people through direct elections certainly fulfills the basic requirement for the development of a stable civil society. The political system is one of the sub-systems of the entire civil society. The political system is specific in that all the activities and relations of which it is composed are directed to the state and its functions. The structure of the political system is composed of political and legal norms, political knowledge, political culture and political structure. These elements confirm the strong relationship between the state, the law and the political system. Developed democratic societies can talk about a developed political system that abounds with political culture and democracy. It is the aspiration of our life. Investing in democratic societies we invest in the future of our children. If we separate the subjects of the political system, we will determine that the people are the basis of the political system. All competencies intertwine around people. Political systems are largely dependent not only on the political processes that take place in them every day, but also on the economic performance and the economic power of the states. Economic stagnation or regression in some countries often threatens democracy and its values. We often forget that we cannot speak of the existence of a functioning and well-organized democratic political system without its strong economic support. In conditions of globalization, it is necessary to pay special attention to international positions as the main factor of the political system, for the simple reason that the functions of the state in this process are increasingly narrowing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 670-676
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Hang ◽  
Dinh Thi Hien ◽  
Dinh Tran Ngoc Huy ◽  
Leng Thi Lan ◽  
Ly Thi Hue

This paper aims to present practical values of a socialism economy from ideologies of V.I Lenin and Ho Chi Minh, two talented leaders of the world. Authors mainly use qualitative analysis, consisting of synthesis and inductive methods and historical materialism methods. Research findings show us that from Ho Chi Minh views, People is the most important criterion to evaluate the effectiveness of the political system’s operating capacity. This is also a very humanistic goal of the Vietnamese political system. If the operation of the political system is ineffective, the bureaucracy, the contingent of cadres and civil servants, especially key cadres, are degenerated and degenerated, the political system will slip out of the orbit of the people. The owner of the people, to become a force opposed to the people.


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