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News

Paradox of Democracy

August 16, 2022 05:47 PM


Democracy is a system which acknowledges the majority rule and simultaneously provides recognition and protection to the rights of minorities. In a democracy, a popular leader will form the government. To be popular is a commendation to a leader. Nevertheless, there is a marked difference between being a popular or a populist leader. Populist is a distinctive taint in politics. Populist leadership has certain characteristics, and it is not a new term in human history. We have seen a number of populist leaders even in the last century and in recent times. The most famous contemporary example of populist leaders is Donald Trump of the United States, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Andrés Manuel López of Mexico, Modi of India, Putin of Russia and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

The populist leadership has not only endangered the world by jeopardising the democratic conventions but additionally, history reveals they have also inflicted irreparable scars on their nations.

Although democracy has many weaknesses but still is the only suitable way to form governments. One of the basic norms of democracy is “Tolerance” i.e. learning to coexist. Forbearance and patience is the distinctive feature of democracy. Cultured leadership always adhere to the rules and bounds of democracy.

According to John Rowls (a well-known political analyst of the last century) who conceptualised the “Paradox of Tolerance”. Generally, it is viewed that society has to be tolerant and must perpetuate to let others live. When and if there is intolerance in society, the question of how to deal with it arises. Intolerance certainly cannot be dealt with tolerance, that is what causes the Paradox of Tolerance.

Nevertheless, democracy gives the right to rule, whoever enjoys the support of the majority. One only gets to know, when a populist leader comes into power as a result of popular support in the masses, what kind of immeasurable crash of functioning he inflicts on the system, this can be termed the paradox of democracy.

Democracy is a complicated matter, it requires extreme sagacity and wisdom. Based on certain deficiencies of democracy, chances of surfacing a populist leader are always there. The emergence of a populist leader is not primarily attributable to democracy but is a consequence of the lack of people’s Democratic wisdom. It is imperative, that society shall raise the public’s political wisdom to differentiate between democracy and populism.

A populist leader will always create a divide “we the pure and you the corrupt”

A populist leader always disbelieves in consultative or collective wisdom, he tends to consider himself the solution to every problem, he asserts himself to be the will of the people and promulgates, that only I can fix it. Whereas the essence of democracy is all about disagreements, diversity and differences of opinions.

A paradigm of populist leadership is that he persistently needs an enemy and crisis. Basically, populism is a set of negatives. Populism is a political ideology that pitches the masses against an enemy. Usually, this enemy is the social, cultural, and economic elites. Though his own behaviour will be of elites, his posture will be anti-elite. Moreover, populism's general posture is anti-intellectualism and relies on unsound popular slogans. These slogans are hollow and not backed by any policies.

Contrary to norms of a good system or society, which doesn’t have many news, a populist leader would always believe in creating the ones from nothing. He needs a perpetual crisis to stay relevant and in the limelight.

A populist leader has the tendency to violate any norms, traditions and bounds to portray that he is above the law, and resultantly will gain the reputation of being bold. He would rely on slogans crafted out of “trigger words” to emotionally exploit the masses in complete defiance to policies.

An additional characteristic of a populist leader is that he will be ill-mannered, arrogant and self-centred. All his acts would be indecent and in violation of all etiquettes. A populist leader for personal gains would not care for any manners and would change direction as per his convenience and keep the followers ill-informed, and will refrain from educating them, rather will keep them in the illusion of their own bigotries.

A populist leader is typically critical of political representation and anything that mediates the relation between the people and their leader. In its contemporary understanding, populism is most often associated with an authoritarian form of politics.

Populist is disruptive. He positions himself as an outsider who is radically different and separate from the existing order. So he frequently advocates for a change to the status quo and may champion the need for urgent structural change, whether that is supported by the policy or not. He often does this by promoting a sense of crisis (whether true or not), and presenting himself as having the solution to the crisis. The fact populist often wants to transform the status quo, ostensibly in the name of the people, resultantly he causes a threat to the democratic norms and societal customs.

As a consequence, a populist leader fails in decision making which is in the larger interest of the nation. Decisions related to the public, economy and country are only possible through consultative, collective and harmonious policies, which only is possible through respect, tolerance and consciousness under democratic criteria and processes.



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