Should populist leaders be
considered as a threat to
democracy?
According to Mudde, populism
refers to a political ideology that
claims to represent the common
people against a supposedly
corrupt and self-serving elite.
When can we really say that
it is a threat to democracy?
Asserts hegemony or domination.
A populist leader and his party asserts that they are
the only authentic, genuine representation of the
people's will and rejects democratic pluralism.
Undermine democratic institutions
Populist leaders may use their popularity and
charismatic appeal to concentrate power in their
own hands, bypassing established checks and
balances.
Becoming Illiberal
Populist leaders tend to curtail the freedoms of
political, racial, and ethnic minorities, or the ability
of the media and society at large.
Nativist
The populist leader targets a certain social group
such as the immigrants.
Trump attacked the mainstream media as the "enemy of the
people" and sought to undermine confidence in the US
electoral system by claiming fraud in the 2020 presidential
election.
He undermined the separation of powers by discrediting
judges who made decisions he disagreed with.
Trump also sought to undermine the US federal system by
attacking governors whose policies clashed with his own.
Most significantly, he inspired an insurrection on January 6,
2021, where his followers used violence to overturn the
results of the 2020 election by attacking the US Congress.