Opposing Populism: Electoral Mobilization Against Populist Leaders

Abstract

How have political parties that oppose populist in power organized and mobilized in elections? What are the strategies, rhetoric, and repertoire mobilized to challenge populism? This discussion shifts focus from populists to the parties that confront them in elections. The panel also proposes to consider the challenges populists face when competing in elections once in power and their response. There are no clear theories or research agenda exploring how viable contenders organize to defeat populists in power and the reactions from populists in defending the continuity of their mandates through the vote. It is highly probable that campaign rhetoric will make reference to concepts regarding views on democracy and threats to liberal democracy, including illiberalism and anti-liberalism. For instance, the opposition might rely on imposing on voters the risks associated with the perpetuation in power of populist leaders in reducing the liberal dimension of democratic governance. However, other issues, such as the pandemic, the situation of the economy, eventual scandals, can also be deployed in criticizing populists in power. Therefore, it is possible that there are general and specific issues that affect electoral competition in the presence of populist leaders and parties in power. We will attempt to identify the common threads between the distinct cases and those who are specific to certain realities in an effort to analyze electoral competition in the presence of populists running for reelection. It is also important to articulate the mechanisms that associate campaign rhetoric and strategy to the results of the elections. Are there more successful pathways for the opposition to defeat populists? In the cases in which populists prevail, surviving in power, what were de deflective tactics to avoid blame from oppositional criticism? Populists who survive in power share attributes of a personal or political nature or is it a consequence of governmental performance and positive popular evaluations based on policies and the state of the economy? Finally, what are the implications of the populist defeat or reelection to the political system? Does the aftermath of a defeat lead to the immediate repositioning of the populist leader in the opposition, as a viable future alternative or is it a death blow to the populist leader? Does the victory represent a deepening of the threat to liberal democracy in the form of resisting electoral results and engaging in political violence? We propose to study different cases in which populist leaders in power faced significant opposition in recent elections. Hence, we explore the variety of situations involving how parties organize to challenge populists in power.

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