Populism and Solidarity

Political democracy operates on the basis of the principle of solidarity. It aims at ensuring universal solidarity that cuts across all divisive categories. Populist movements bring out contradictions and inequalities in society to enable a discourse on addressing fragmentation and polarizations effectively. However, when populism transcends the realm of oppositional voice to gain political power, they tend to promote solidarity, which is parochial. This is because the populists target elites and their policies as the root cause of the suppression and silencing of the hitherto oppressed classes and cannot justify the need to run the government based on solidarity that transcends parochialism. This section discusses various tactics deployed by populist movements to become the ‘face of people’ and how they performed after gaining political power. It also discusses the need to reflect on populism and solidarity in a transnational setting.