I've decided to try this Hive 365 days challenge. As I don't yet know how to mint NFTs on Hive, I'll be burying a free WAX NFT drop at the bottom of each of my posts because it's fun. But, let's get on with it.
The rise of populism and ethnic nationalism that is occurring throughout the West is a troubling dynamic that involves a fundamental and existential threat to liberal democratic governance throughout the region. The most problematic element of populism is the dynamic of “othering” which it brings about in relation to groups that populist leaders socially construct as representing threatening outsiders. With this “othering” leading to the debasement of these external groups, it is oriented towards mobilizing collective action amongst members of the group led by the populist leader. In examining American history, similar dynamics of othering can be seen in relation to the portrayal of slaves prior to emancipation, in relation to the presentation of the Soviets during the Cold War, and in terms of the way by which Muslims are framed as a threat in the ongoing War on Terror. With “othering” having the potential to lead to the repression of the targeted group or large-scale violence against it, populism is a threat to democracy both because of how it advances undemocratic principles tied to inequality and due to how it seeks to use hate for the purposes of gaining political advantage.
At the baseline, the prevalence of “othering” in populist political leadership is tied to the manner by which it is premised on both a rejection of traditional political elites and because of how it engenders collective mobilization through the social construction of an “other.” This social construction of the “other” debases a group so that the in-group which supports the populist leader or party gains the ability to engage in collective action because of their desire to harm or marginalize the group which has been created as the “other.” With Nigel Farage using Europe as the “other” during BREXIT and with Donald Trump using American Latinx and Muslim populations during his 2016 electoral campaign, the dynamics associated with “othering” are the principal structures through which populist leaders work to mobilize their supporters to engage in large-scale political action.
Parallels to the “othering” that is associated with contemporary populism can be found in “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.” Just as populist leaders attempt to debase minorities and outsiders are threats or as being inferior to the people whom they claim to serve, slavery is described by Equiano as a process in which the corruption of the master allows him to gain immense power of the slave all the while not allowing the slave to hold any agency regarding their day-to-day lives. This very much mirrors the exclusionary nature of populist politicians. Taking the example of Donald Trump and his attempt to ban Muslims for entering the United States and his comments about “shithole countries,” it is clear that he sought to even further marginalize some of the most vulnerable populations in the world. Doing so by framing them as savage outsiders, Trump’s discourse deprived them of agency by virtue of convincing his followers that such individuals could never integrate into American society. While slavery has been abolished, populism can create new structures serving to constrain the freedom of minority groups and the marginalized.
Similar parallels can be found in terms of America’s experience of the Cold War. Looking at NSC-68, it framed the Soviets as being inherently violent, and suggested that unless they were met with force, that they would attempt to conquer territories and thus harm the American national interest. With this framing of the Soviets being used so as to justify an immense military build-up and what would later become America’s participation in the Vietnam War, it used the logic of the “other” so as to demonize foreigners. While NSC-68 was not premised on the same type of populist political ambitions associated with leaders like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, it made use of a very similar logic to that of populism. By portraying the Soviets as inherently violent and as representing almost all of the characteristics which are viewed negatively in American society, the government was able to justify massive military expenditures which would ultimately lead to a conflict that would last forty more years, and bring the world to the edge of nuclear destruction. The manipulative tactics associated with “othering” are thus very powerful whether they are used in the context of populism or outside of it as long as they are associated with power like that which was held by the American government during the Cold War.
Finally, Amartya Sen’s attempt to refute the concept of the Clash of Civilizations also serves to demonstrate the manner by which “othering” is an important force in terms of bringing about collective action within a group. With the Clash of Civilizations premised on the idea that different civilizations hold diametrically core beliefs and are bound to enter conflict, it is a theory that can be used by populists and demagogues to encourage conflict with other states. The dynamics of the Clash of Civilizations can be witnessed in the context of the War on Terror even though this conflict does not necessarily involve populism. With America using its victimization during the attacks of 9/11 to justify military interventions anywhere in the Muslim world at any time, it engages in “othering” that frames Muslims as violent, and thus requiring American military intervention to protect both the United States and the Western world more broadly from the threat of Islam. Even though the War on Terror is not being led by populists, it nevertheless represents a structure in which the logic of “othering” has been frequently used.
In examining the consequence of “othering” as it manifests itself in relation to populism, it represents a threat to democracy because of the manner by which it stigmatizes and marginalizes the targeted populations and denies them their basic democratic rights. Because the “othering” associated with populism aims to create hatred towards an out-group so as to mobilize the in-group, it necessarily involves a significant dynamic of anti-democratic thought. Given that the constitutions of democratic countries promise equal protection to all under the law, the demonization associated with “othering” produces a situation in which those who support populist candidates are willing to allow for the basic rules of democracy to be eroded so as to continue the marginalization of these “others.” With the populist demonization of “others” having led to Hitler’s rise to power and the Holocaust, Putin’s rise to power in Russia and the loss of the country’s post-war democracy as well as to the rise of the anti-Tutsi sentiment that would bring about genocide in Rwanda, it is not only a threat to democratic principles but also a threat to the lives of the members of the groups who are being “othered” by the populist leader.
With this in mind, ongoing dynamics of populist backlashes occurring in the United States and Europe are troubling because of the potential repercussions they might have for the democracies of these countries. In the United States, President Trump took unprecedented and quasi-authoritarian actions, notably in challenging the results of the election and refusing to accept a peaceful transition to power, which are reminiscent of the dynamics of authoritarian regimes. In European countries like Poland and Bulgaria, populist leaders are attempting to pull these countries out of the European Union and are increasingly attempting to destroy the democratic institutions which were built with such difficulty in the wake of these countries obtaining freedom from oppression at the end of the Cold War. With populists almost universally using the process of “othering” to destroy democracy and bring about authoritarian rule, the populist threat which is currently present in Europe and the United States must be treated seriously.
In the end, the dynamics of “othering” that are associated with contemporary populism have manifested themselves in non-populist periods of American history. From the time of slavery to the Cold War and all the way to the ongoing War on Terror, populism has been used to debase “others” for personal and political gain. This said, the new manifestations of populism which are occurring in both the United States and Europe are emblematic of different patterns of “othering” which are fundamentally anti-democratic in nature and which risk bringing around the same type of authoritarian backslide that has occurred in Russia to many Western democracies. While the strength of American civil society will likely insulate it from such a fortune, the less developed democratic structures present throughout much of Central and Eastern Europe are far more vulnerable to these patterns of populist destruction.
Free NFT PeakD Daily Blogging Challenge Day 1
