anditsresponsestopopulismas
formingan essential part of the
causalexplanationofthese popu-
lisms.It wouldbeimportanttoex-
tendthisanalysistootherplaces,
includingtoIndiaunderNarendra
Modi.
Letmejustconcludebysayinga
verybriefwordtotieupallthis
lengthy analysiswiththetwoinitial
questionsI posed.
Thefirstquestionwashowhas
“populism”,whichis definedbydic-
tionariesas“theoppositiontoelites
byordinarypeople”(surelya good
thing)becomea pejorativeterm?
ThepointsI madearoundwhatI
calledthe“failuresof inference”were
intendedas anexplanationof that.
Butwhatoftheotherquestion,
whatis thedifference betweenpopu-
lismas a wayof combatingelitesand
democracy?Afterall,democracyis
intendedtogiveordinary peoplea
chanceto counterelitesthroughrep-
resentativepolitics.Thatis to say,if
democracycalibratesrepresentation
withnumbersandif weassume—
surely,a safeassumption—thator-
dinarypeopleoutnumber elites,then
willy-nilly democracy is going to
providea politicalmechanismfor
opposingelites. Butthenwhatis the
differencebetweenthesetwowaysof
opposingtheelites,andwhyis popu-
lism even necessary when you
already havedemocracy?
POWEROFUNELECTED
OFFICIALS
Well,obviously,theanswerliesin the
insufficienciesof formalrepresentat-
ivedemocracy. Thereis a greatdeal
of literatureonthesedeficienciesin
democraticpolities,butonepoint
thatis immediately relevanttothis
secondquestionis that,unlike(lib-
eral)democracy, populism alsoseeks
(notalwayswithcompletecoher-
ence,afterallwhat I calleda “failure
ofinference”is a symptomofinco-
herence)toopposesomethingthat
democracy, it seems, has been
powerlesstooppose:thepower of
unelectedofficials withspecific eco-
nomic interests to dominate the
formationofpolicies.Thegeneral
powerlessnessofdemocracy topre-
ventthisis presentinthefactthat
thisdominationexistswiththegen-
eral acquiescence of the elected
representatives.Whatdoyoumeanby“unelected
officialswithspecific economic
interests”?
Justtakea lookattherollcallof
support forboththeRemaincam-
paigninBritainandfor[Hillary]
Clinton in the primaries against
Sanders(aswellasinthepresiden-
tial elections against Trump). It
rangedfromtheIMF[International
MonetaryFund],WallStreet,the
OECD[Organisation forEconomic
CooperationandDevelopment] and
[George]Soros,totheGovernorof
theBankof England.Thisshowsthe
extenttowhichwhatunderliesthe
political classthatsurfaces in main-
stream democratic politics is a
paradeofcorporate andbanking
elites.Andif thatis theunderlying
powercentre in actuallyexistinglib-
eraldemocracy, then populismis
boundto differentiate itself fromthis
political classbywhatevermeans(of-
ten incoherent, often by turning
alarminglycloseto fascistideologies)
thatareavailableforit in a verycon-
strictedpoliticalculture,thesources
of whose constriction I tried to
present.
So,justtobeclear,I wantto
stresstwothingsthat distinguish
populism from actually existing
democracyasweknowit.First, be-
causesuchdemocracyis dominated
bytheliberalframeworksof thought
I’vebeendescribing, populismis to
bedistinguished fromdemocracy by
thefactthatit is opposinganentire
consensualorthodoxpoliticalclass
(the legislatures and executive
branches of these democracies)
whichhasacquiescedin actually ex-
isting democraciesto the policy-
shapingcontrolexercisedbyunelec-
tedrepresentativesofthecorporate
andbankingelites.But,second, that
oppositionis onlyinstinctiveandin-
choate;it is oftenconfused,andoften
in thrall to leaders who merely
mouththatoppositionwhilework-
ingto maketheclassrepresented by
theseunelected officials evenmore
entrenchedin theircontrol.Both
thesepoints areessentialto thedia-gnosticconditionof right-wingpop-
ulisms that we witness today.
Populismis distinctfromdemocracy
inopposingsomethingthatdemo-
cracy(initspervasivelyliberal form
thatispresentinactuallyexisting
democracies)is powerless to oppose,
buttheoppositionit provides is often
andmostlyunder-theorisedandin-
stinctive and largely
counterproductive.CHANGINGNOTIONS OFCLASSYouhavedistinguishedbetween
populismanddemocracy.What
aboutthedifferencebetween
populismandclasspolitics?
Youarerightto raisethatpoint too.
Populismhasemergedas a renewed
phenomenoninourtimes notonly
becauseof thelimitationsof actually
existingdemocracybutbecausein
thepastmanyyearsclasspoliticshas
beensuperseded.Twofactorsliebe-
hindthislatter phenomenon.First,
old notions of class have broken
down(forthereasons wetraversed
whenoutlining thelossof bargaining
poweroflabour),andsecond,all
sortsof specialinterestsmakingde-
mandsonthestatehaveemergedas a
resultof othergroups(notdefinedin
classterms) gainingbenefitsfrom
state policies. (In India, Mandal
providesthemostobviousexample,
but there are diverse other ex-
amples.)These twofactorsmakeit
necessarytointroducea newcat-
egory ofpopulism tounderstand
whatoftengoesoninthepoliticsof
resistance. Thus, for example,
Sanderswastryingto bringtogether
manydifferent special interests;his
wasnotjustanolderformofclass
politics,thoughof coursehedidmo-
bilisepeoplesufferingfromunem-
ployment andwagestagnation,but
healsomobilisedyouthwithcrip-
plingeducationdebts,theelderly
population marginalised without
properhealth insurance,incarcer-
atedblackpopulationsignoredby
thefirstblackPresidentinU.S.his-
tory,etc.Soyouaresayingthatpopulism
definedas“oppositionto elites”is a
conceptthat getsitspointand