Rise and Rise of the Right: Hail Populism, A Layman's narrative

One Way... the RIGHT way!!

Over the last few years, we all have witnessed how there has been a rise of “right-wing” ideologies across the world. Nations have seen rise to prominence of political parties with rightist propaganda. The rise has been uniform across continents; we can though leave Africa from our consideration as the notion of democratic governance is yet to gain dominance in the continent. However, the understanding of what “right-wing politics” means is not too clear.

Our history books have done a good job of describing the concept of “liberal democracy”, by closely following the development of nation states in the post WWII era. But the idea of right-politics is a relatively newer phenomenon, emerging in different states at different times, mostly in the last quarter of the 20^th century. So, come…. let us try and comprehend what this ideology propagates and study its rise.

Why the name Right Winged?

More than 300 years ago, during the early days of representative governance in France, there happened to be two prominent factions in the French National Assembly, who were polarized to the extent that they decided to sit in groups, in different sides of the hall. It so happened that the anti-royalists seated themselves to the left of the presiding officer while the conservative supporters of the king sat to the right. The context has evolved manifold in all these years, but the naming convention based on seating has stuck. Thus, conservative ideologies have ended being labelled “Right” and liberals have been labelled “Left”.

The ideology and how it compares with the Left

A very elementary and simple way to differentiate the Left and the Right would be to bucket ideas :

LEFT: Freedom, welfare, fundamental rights, equality, reform, collaboration, co-operation

RIGHT: Hierarchy, tradition, duty, authority, nationalism

The above would ring a bell in the reader’s mind…. Ok! So, the communists are Left and the Capitalists are Right, right!? (No pun intended) Well, dear Reader, this interpretation cannot be junked, but in today’s context Left- Right mean much more. Honestly, speaking these are not water-tight compartments and thus, classification in the real world becomes a bit messy. Also, differences exist in their versions across countries.

Generally speaking, Leftists are those that are liberal and more open to reform/change. They believe in the critical role of governments in alleviating poverty, ensuring social welfare and are moderate in their propaganda. The Rightists, in contrast, are proponents of market superiority, social order, nationalistic and are overall less- tolerant. Again, these definitions are not carved in stone. However, in the narrative presented by media and analysts, this classification mostly holds. 

What’s the fuss with so-called Right-wing politics?

Clash of ideologies between the Left and the Right can take different forms. The Cold War was an example of such a clash. India too has seen it’s share of political battle along similar lines, especially in recent years with the rise of right winged Bharatiya Janata Party. Before the rise of BJP, our national scene was mostly dominated by left-wing parties. However, the above difference in opinions has existed for decades and did not warrant a sudden rise in collective opinion, across the world, especially about the Right.

The reason is that in the 2 decades post 2000, right-winged parties have suddenly become powerful and captured power in many prominent nation states, sometimes decimating the Left-liberal opposition in the process. The sheer support that they have is astounding and that many are promoting extreme ideas is discerning.

Europe: Hungary, Austria, UK, Bulgaria, Estonia, Netherlands, Norway

Asia & Middle East: India, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Israel, Japan, Philippines

Americas: USA, Brazil, Canada

(The above list is not exhaustive and leaves out nations, where rightists have influence.) 

From scroll.in : The Left Liberals don’t really understand right wing populism and have no effective counter to it;

in frame Sh. Narendra Modi during one of his electrifying orations

In this context, it is important to now introduce the reader to the idea of “Populism”. Ohh  what!! Now what is this demon? Prof. Cas Mudde, one of the pioneers in this field, describes it as an ideology that divides society into two antagonistic tribes:  the “pure” people – the majority and the “good” ones, and the corrupt elite – those at the top of the pyramid. Populism is the policy of magnifying the chasm between the above groups and portraying the “elitists” as the evil in society. Populist leaders, irrespective of place, promote a narrative that polarizes the masses or the “populi” against the corrupt evil. The populist leader uses such a negative sentiment to garner support (remember, human beings are always more united and motivated by hatred than by love). They become vox populi and sweep elections, with unquestionable majority mandate. I have just described the modus operandi of the populists. The reader can now appreciate the problem with populism – there is no actual policy for national development, the masses are fed with a convenient narrative that has an identified bad guy and most importantly, the leaders are smart enough to amend their slogans to what the masses can identify. (Ahh…that’s why the name Populism).

Right-winged ideologies, by themselves, were not as much powerful, but they incorporated the populist strategy much better than their political opposition. This is the sole reason behind the rise of the ‘Right winged” faction. From here on, we shall refer to this group as the Right winged Populists.

But, Why now? Why did they not rise before?

"Liberal Democracy is on the wane and to replace it cometh the Populists!!!"

The idea of the liberal democratic state took nearly a century to traverse the globe. Starting from WWI, the idea gained momentum after WWII. However, realization of true democracy globally can be said to have been achieved only by the end of the 20^th century. The Western democracies showed the path and many countries across the world gradually graduated to democracies… not always perfect, but at least incorporated the concept of elected ruling parties.

Democracy was believed to be the ultimate form of government, an incorruptible edifice, free of malignancies the world has forever attached to tyrants and dictators. But, as they say, “Nothing is perfect”. We witnessed nations awakening to scams by entrenched ruling party members; poor policy leading to severely distressed national economies. In some cases, elected leaders pivoted to strongman style governance, not in sync with liberal fabric of an ideal democracy.

The decline of democracy is perhaps inevitable. History bears ample evidence to the fact that it is in the very nature of societies to grow intolerant with existing rulers, thus leading to revolutions and subsequent change in leaders. However, the rapid arrival of what seems a downhill descent for democracy, especially the liberal kind, is unprecedented. This is associated and facilitated by the rise of Right winged Populism.

We have been able to identify two broad reasons behind success of Populist Right winged parties.

Reason 1

“When faced with prolonged crisis, people become frustrated and eventually vengeful”

The 21^st century has witnessed a series of crises, of scale till then unknown to humanity….

•  The 9/11 attacks that shredded the virtual mantle of invincibility of the United States and gave impetus to the narrative of Islamic terror.
•  The bursting of the Housing Bubble and consequent, global recession termed as the Great Recession; Much of Europe, North & South America were severely affected.
•  Overall slowing of GDP growth in super rich economies like China, US, Japan, UK, etc.
•  Barrage of economic scams that have been exposed and reported across the world, for example: Venezuela’s currency crisis, the Panama Papers, Turkey’s “Gas for Gold” scam, India’s 2G scam, etc.
•  Massive protests in several countries against corrupt in-power leaders and governments, as well as institutions and industries, for ex. Occupy Wall Street in US.
• Rising cases of immigration, especially in Europe, fueled by unrest in Middle East – Syrian War, Arab Spring of 2012, Iraqi crisis, etc., which was viewed as a threat to security as well as an enormous burden on asylum countries.

From: pinterest.ca/askmen.com 

People were seeing their incomes stagnating/ declining and simultaneously, were getting to learn about money laundering activities of those in power. And when a tough-talking leader on the horizon spoke harshly of the elites, people could virtually hear their own minds. Thus, the rise of the Populist. It only helped that the right-winged ideology entails some sort of extremism, since people were willing to punish the wrong doers. The charismatic Narendra Modi could blame years of corrupt rule by the Congress Party for all the misery and promise a magical deliverance, while being strong in dealing with terrorists and scamsters alike. Mr. Donald Trump promised taxes for the wealthy and sops for the masses. Tough stand on immigration and unity based on culture/ ethnicity were also among key chords that they played. So, in this new smart avatar of Populism, there were not one but two miscreant groups – the traditionally powerful elites who were corrupt and the “outsiders”…. Afro-Americans, minorities, immigrants, who had no business being here. In some case, they have been collectively labelled as “anti-nationals”, appealing to the national pride of the people and revitalizing right-winged nationalism.

The time was right for Populism to garner public support.

From:pinterest.ca/twitter.com

Reason 2

“The ubiquitous rise of democratized digital media”

Unlike ever before in history, exchange and /or promotion of ideas is too easy now. And most crucially, the cost of passing on information to one more person (variable cost) is practically nil. Add to it, the rise of Social media, chat platforms, etc. that thrive on user-generated content. Media is no more restricted to the control of a limited no. of channels and professionals. Every Sam, John or Mary can now create content and spread a message to any part of the world, in a matter of seconds. There is no way to effectively monitor such a deluge of information, yet its effect on the populace is immense.

Thus, it should come as no surprise to the reader that universal access to information was instrumental in mobilizing the masses. The peasant living in a remote countryside or the coal-mine worker was now more aware of national issues (albeit through half-cooked stories, on certain occasions). Just think about it…. Populist leaders, with strong anti-establishment rhetoric, reaching out to the population via popular channels…Primary followers, forwarding messages via social media, thus creating umpteen waves of a single-minded narrative…….Recommendation engines leading the consumer into a loop of asymmetric information.

All the above has given rise to Right-winged Populism…... the raging tsunami in the stage of world politics. We are moving into a world where liberalism is increasingly taking a back seat and radical right winged ideology is gaining momentum, on the crutches of Populism.

#rightwingpopulism #right-wingpolitics #politicalideology #modiji #namo #populism #riseofpopulism #economiccrisis #democracyunderthreat #democracy #blogger #mindspeaks

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Dear Reader, Hope I have been able to partially clarify the ideas of Right-winged politics and its link to the emergence of Populist regimes. I have tried to keep personal opinions from biasing the article, however, any divergence from the latter be kindly forgiven. This is the first in a series of articles through which I shall attempt to discuss upon contemporary trends and ideas, that are shaping the world.

Thanks for reading !!