The Populist-Nationalist Rebellion: Challenge to Transatlantic Democracy. College of Europe Policy Brief #2.19, April 2019

Shattuck, John (2019) The Populist-Nationalist Rebellion: Challenge to Transatlantic Democracy. College of Europe Policy Brief #2.19, April 2019. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

> The United States and the European Union are confronted today by a surge of populist nationalism driven by rebellion against governing elites. This presents multiple challenges to transatlantic democracy. > The rise of economic globalization and a collision of social values since the end of the Cold War has produced widespread anxiety, economic disruption and a corrosive politics of fear. This has led to economic rebellion by people left behind by globalization, from which elites have disproportionately benefitted, and social and cultural rebellion by national and ethnic majorities feeling threatened by minorities, immigration and European integration promoted by governing elites. > A prime example of these trends is Hungary, which has become a European laboratory for populist nationalism. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s soft authoritarianism is based on populist-nationalist manipulation, and his success has made him the strongman of the far right on both sides of the Atlantic. Similar populist-nationalist movements emerged around Brexit in the UK and the Tea Party in the US, exacerbating centrifugal forces in the EU and leading to the election of Donald Trump in the US. > Democratic institutions in the US and the EU – the electoral process, the media, the courts, law enforcement, civil service and above all, civil society – are potential sources of democratic resilience. The dangers democracy faces today can in fact stimulate its revival if populist-nationalist forces and the broader civil society are able to work together in a movement for economic fairness and democratic renewal.

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