Democracy Structure Analysis Report

POLITICS

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‘In politics today, populism seems to be the most important ideology’
In the time when the politics is only about winning, populism seems to be highly effective.
The culture of populism has become the art of winning. Democracy has become all about
praising the majority where it is seen that if any political party is able to attract the majority
will be able to remain in power for longer period of time (Riedel, 2017). Political parties have
to ensure that the policies that they are making in today’s time are able to benefit most of the
people and more importantly it is able to attract most of the population in the nation. In
representative democracy where the representatives have to face elections at regular intervals,
it has become critical for the political parties or governments to remain popular (Laclau,
2012). Even only those parties are winning that are able to praise the people even when at the
ground levels they are doing nothing. Ideologies have become the lesser affecting factor in
persuading the people. This can be seen in the case of United Kingdom also where there is
parliamentary democracy and people have representative. This essay is going to illustrate
about the way in which populism has become the most important ideology in the politics.
Populism is understood as the range of political stance that focuses on the idea of the people
and often juxtapose this group against the elites. It is seen that when the political parties are
not in the power it is the other ideologies that they follow (Engesser, et al 2017). Left and
right ideologies take the major spots in the world politics. However in the case of
governments it is mainly seen that people in power usually focuses towards becoming
populist. For this the ideology that they follow is to praise people. Governments are trying to
bring budgets that could lure more and more people. The policies that can make sure that
people love the government. It can be seen in terms of tax exemptions, people development
programs etc. Announcement of such schemes increases at the time when elections are on the
head (Mondon and Winter, 2019). This is done for showing that government thinks about the
people. This can be easily seen in terms of manifestos that parties launch for their campaign
where most of the things are done to become popular.
It is to be understood that populist ideology deals with the small area of focus and they try
that the narrative in the country also does not go out of that area. The two major populist
ideologies are the socialism and nationalism. This is because these both ideologies are very
much powerful in attracting the mind-sets of the people. Promoting nationalism has become
one of the best tools for showcasing that they are populist government. The governments that

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show them that they are thinking more about the benefits of the nation are able to become
more popular. The governments that are able to take decision which others in the past have
not taken become more popular (Moffitt and Tormey, 2014). This is why the harsh words or
any kind of action against the enemy nations by the government is often liked by the people.
For becoming popular governments are playing with the emotions of the people.
Governments are first building the emotions of the people and work towards it so that they
can become populist. This is also done with the help of media. Narratives like pro-nation and
anti-national are very common. People also give votes on this background only and they
often forget their personal problems. This ideology has the power that it deviate the minds of
the voters from actual problems that they and their country are facing (Hadiz and
Chryssogelos, 2017). There is whole machinery in the political parties that works day and
night to build these narratives and then work towards that so that they remain popular. The
problems faced by people remains as it is.
It is a time of the politics where media management has become a critical part of winning the
elections. It is due to this that governments are very much concerned about their image and
hence they also take decisions that can keep them in headlines and can allow them to become
popular. Even when the government has not done anything at the ground levels they will
portray that they have done many things (Mazzoleni, 2014). Following this ideology
governments are not trying to make long term strategies rather they plan for small term
strategies that can give immediate benefits to the people. It has been also seen that
governments are trying to control the media in the nation. This is done for managing the
image of the government in front of the people (Aslanidis, 2016). The other side of the story
is also true where it is seen that governments are using different interaction platforms along
with the media to understand that what the people want from government and then they build
strategies in such a manner that they look good till the time the government is not elected
once again. The best example of both the cases can be seen in the case of refugee problem in
United Kingdome where first the government build the emotions against the refugees that are
coming to UK so that people do not go against the government when they pull out these
people out the nation.
Populism has affected the political decision making and it is seen that sentiments of the
people are always nudged by the governments. Due to this it is often seen that the people or
the group that are in the minority will be marginalised. The situation becomes worse in the
case when there is conflict between the majority and the minority (Mudde and Kaltwasser,