Supply-Side Anti-Pluralists and Demand-Side Anti-Plutocrats: The Case of 21st Century Populism

By the time communism collapsed in East Europe, there were several signs of backlash to liberal democracy worldwide. The writing on the wall first was deciphered as a resurgence of populism, and by the 2010s the interpretation soured into an experience of widespread democratic backsliding. The literature on these phenomena exploded, and by the early 2020s, some datasets were also created. This paper summarizes the main trends of contemporary views about populism and de-democratization and defends three claims that have abundant empirical support from the new datasets. The claims themselves are rooted in 21st century political science and many-century-old philosophical traditions. (i) Populism is not simply anti-pluralism, and not the negative end of a pluralism-populism continuum; (ii) types of populism vary in history and also with the “host” ideology; the current democratic backsliding is associated with right-wing populism; and (iii) people’s experience of equality in their country affects their receptivity to populist and anti-pluralist appeals. The first part of the paper articulates the theoretical background against which the claims receive meaning and relevance, and the second substantiates the claims and refers to the empirical evidence supporting them. The concluding part contemplates what it takes to make democracies survive.