Can Realism Save Us from Populism? Rousseau in the Digital Age

In 2016, the Five Stars Movement (5SM), one of the parties currently in power in Italy, launched the “Rousseau platform”. This is a software meant to enhance direct democracy, transparency and popular participation through the tools offered by digitalization. The Rousseau platform is claimed to make it possible what, before, was considered either unfeasible or undesirable: the real participation of the all the people in the making of laws, policies and political proposals. The Rousseau platform comes with a broader political plan sponsored by the 5SM: politics should not be made by professional politicians but by the people, and that authenticity, simplicity, and accountability should be restored in it. Moreover, movements should replace established parties and ordinary people should replace corrupted elites in power. Although ennobled with the name of Rousseau, the 5SM’s redemptive promise has been labelled as populist. It has received strong attacks for being unfeasible, irresponsible and ideological. Critics have appealed to the need for considering political facts, taking responsibility for political actions and dismantling dangerous ideological narratives and delusions. In this paper, I investigate whether political realism can offer some tools to unveil populist distortions. Three aspects of realism, in particular, will be pointed out as remedies against populist drifts. First, feasibility issues, supported by a disenchanted analysis of the political realm, helps reveal unrealistic promises. When such promises are confronted with facts about politics, leaders can be criticized for being misleadingly unrealistic, utopian and not seriously committed to realizing political goals. Second, the Weberian ethic of responsibility, and its combination with the ethic of conviction, provides orientation in finding a balance between moral concerns and political realizability. Further, the ethic of responsibility warns the politician against courses of action that, despite being morally noble, would drive to destructive outcomes when performed in the political arena. Finally, realism as ideology critique unveils the distorting narratives underlying populist propaganda and fostering uncritical support. Realism as ideology critique aims at combining the tenets of political realism with elements of Critical Theory. Two ideas, in particular, are integrated into the realist approach. One is that the acceptance of the justification of power cannot be produced by the same power that is in need for justification. Second, self-reflection should be exercised in order to unveil the origin of certain beliefs. I argue that, with these tools in hands, realism can enhance self-reflection and help unveil whether certain beliefs originate in ideological or manipulative discourses performed in the public sphere. The paper is structured as follows. Section I describes the Rousseau’s platform and the tasks it is supposed to fulfill according to the 5SM’ leaders. Section II highlights the populist traits of 5SM by leaning on the literature on populism. I group those traits into four issues: direct democracy, attack to established parties and elites, appeal to people and new political style. Section III focuses on three main criticisms: being irresponsible, making unrealistic promises and being ideological. How realism can address these worries occupies section IV.