Beginning with this article, originally published in October 2018 in the European Politics and Policy (EUROPP) blog in LSE, I am presenting a mini-series of four short posts about how populism can be defeated at the polls. As this first piece indicates, it all starts with the availability of a liberal-minded leader with a realistic political and policy plan. Which, alas, is far from easy to get. It is also far from enough. For, as the second, third, and fourth posts in this series show, that leader must also be in control of a political party, present a coherent policy agenda, and use a moderate discourse that is respectful to the institutions of liberal democracy. To empirically demonstrate the points made, I will use the recent defeat of Greece’s populist SYRIZA by the liberal ND party led by Mitsotakis. This case offers valuable lessons for other countries in which populism is in power, particularly the United States.
1/4 LIBERAL LEADER AVAILABILITY
Democracy is undergoing a deep crisis. A number of nominal democracies have slid towards autocracy, most notably Russia, Turkey and Venezuela. Maverick politicians, like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán or Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, disdain liberal institutional norms and are actively seeking to overthrow them. In the United States, Donald Trump’s presidency is playing havoc with erstwhile sacrosanct traditions and rules of state administration.
