“Populism returns . . . to haunt the sentient world, undeterred by the bright dawn of democracy and neo-liberalism.” – Knight (1998, 223)
Variance in political parties and ideologies within the democratic systems of nations has given citizens ample choice in their governance. Within free nations, it would seem intuitive to encourage the creation of groups across the political spectrum. But are there ideologies that threaten the very foundation of democracy and the civil liberties their citizens enjoy? When asked to name dangerous belief systems, one’s mind could naturally float toward far-right nationalism and fascism. Others might be adamantly opposed to socialism and the fundamentals of the welfare state. While these political constructions conflict at the core of their beliefs, charismatic political figures pertaining to all have fought for power under a common banner: populism. Barry Straus, the author of Populism Through the Ages: A Challenge for Democracy and professor at Cornell University, says, “While democracy respects the rule of law, adheres to constitutional limits, and seeks a balance between classes and groups, populism is ambiguous. It promotes the people while denouncing the elite and cares less for law than results. And it is all the rage today.” The rise of populism could lead to an erosion of democratic institutions globally, highlighting the crucial need to prevent populist movements from taking power. India and Brazil are prime examples of how populism, a political approach capable of mobilizing diverse ideological movements, can manifest in various forms contingent upon the specific national context.
In India, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, exemplifies how extreme nationalism can propel a populist movement to power. The BJP has gone about dismantling the inclusive and progressive policies that had defined post-independence India. He had initially come to power by casting Congress, an Indian political party that had dominated Indian politics before the BJP’s rise, as elites out of touch with the nation’s pulse. Modi painted Congress’ beliefs of secularism, socialism, and focus on diversity as Western or English and a threat to Indian culture. Preaching to a population whose religious and ethnic pride had been suppressed for centuries by Mughal and British colonial rule, the Hindu majority felt the accusations of Western idealism hit close to home. He was able to convince northern voters that the nation should be controlled by its religious and ethnic majority, degrading minorities, including the 172 million Muslims, to second-class citizens. His movement has been successful in instilling fear of imaginary Muslim elites amongst the Hindu majority. Modi’s belief in the power of Hindu homogeneity alienates not only the sizeable Muslim population but the educated southern Indians as well, who have continued their support of Congress in the nation’s elections. Many of those in the South were appalled to see the prime minister unveil his campaign at the opening ceremony of a Hindu temple built upon the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque. The mosque had been destroyed in 1992 by Hindu mobs, a reminder of the nation’s complicated religious dynamics.
Modi’s popularity has allowed his government to silence not only minorities but also opposition parties with the support of government bodies. The Indian government has utilized “tax terrorism,” unjust corruption charges, and other means to silence oppositional campaigns, thus stripping citizens of their rights to democracy. Unsurprisingly, his party’s economic success, paired with Islamaphobic rhetoric, is predicted to win the authoritarian populist a majority in India’s parliament or Lok Sabha in the nation’s ongoing elections. The BJP and Narendra Modi have been successful in using religion to take control of the country and undermine its democratic institutions.
Brazil’s former radical right-populist political leader, Jair Bolsonaro, took advantage of the nation’s unfortunate economic circumstances in the late 2000s and the subsequent recession around 2013 to ascend to the presidency. The home of the Amazon has a long and tumultuous history with populism dating back to the 1940s. However, after finally emerging from military dictatorship in the mid-20th century, Brazilians voted for a left-wing government with an overwhelming majority. The left created far-reaching welfare programs and embraced the nation’s minorities. However, once the recession took hold of the Brazillian economy around 2013, the center-left Workers Party’s redistribution policies, poverty alleviation programs, and civil rights policies fueled contempt in those not benefiting from the government’s exuberant spending. The drop worldwide in petroleum prices, one of the biggest drivers of the Brazilian economy, and a steep drop in exports to China, a key trading partner, had a profound impact on public sentiment. Economic uncertainty, paired with corruption scandals involving Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the leader of the Workers Party, and the spread of organized criminal activity, laid the foundation for the rise of Bolsonaro. A former captain in the Brazilian military and the head of the Social Liberal Party, he successfully appealed to the masses through his rejection of everything the ruling left had stood for. In the past, Bolsonaro has openly praised former president Donald Trump’s foreign policy, been against progressive policies towards the LGBTQ community, and said men and women do not deserve to be paid equally. Once in power, Bolsonaro went about dismantling the nation’s democratic institutions. He worked to curtail freedom of expression through the use of “anti-terrorism laws” and asked students to report professors who they believed were spreading “ideological belief.” In addition, his administration requested prison sentences for at least 16 critics and blocked critics on numerous of the government’s social media accounts. During his time in office, he also repeatedly spoke fondly of Brazil’s time under military dictatorship and filled his government with 6,000 active-duty and retired military personnel. In a rally in January of 2021, he said, “It’s the armed forces that decide whether people live in a democracy or a dictatorship.”
Prior to the 2022 presidential elections, Bolosonaro conducted campaigns to intimidate the Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent the vote. The Supreme Court had been overseeing investigations into his conduct, an annoyance that proved to be the end of his political ambitions after the court’s decision last year to bar him from running for office until 2030. At rallies across the nation, Bolosonaro claimed the electoral system was fraudulent and that the results of past elections had been corrupt. The former president said there “could not be elections that create doubts among voters.” The Socialist Republic Party and Jair Bolonaro successfully used the country’s precarious state to take control and undermine its democratic institutions.
In both India and Brazil, leaders have exploited nationalism and fascism to appeal to citizens’ concerns and point to a group they label as “other” as the culprit, all while systematically eroding their citizens’ democratic rights. Operating under the guise of acting in the ordinary person’s best interest, populists implement policies that benefit the elite while impoverishing the masses. The widening gap between the rich and poor, coupled with heightening international tensions and technological innovations, threatens to reverse the progress made in spreading democracy globally. The civil liberties citizens enjoy under the fledgling democracies established during the turn of the century are at risk of being torn away under authoritarian populist leadership. Through an exploration of nations such as India and Brazil, which have had their democracies heavily weakened by populism, citizens can better understand the true nature of populist movements and prevent their ascension to power.