View: Why both Narendra Modi and Donald Trump are textbook populists

As Donald Trump raised his tiny paw and took the presidential oath this Friday, I had just finished reading an outstanding book that, I thought, explained Trump as well as many other leaders on the world stage today. In 'What is Populism?' Jan-Werner Muller, a Princeton professor, lays out all the ingredients from which you can cook up a populist movement. I was struck by how closely our own prime minister, Narendra Modi, matched Muller's definition. Consider the following characteristics that characterise populists, as defined by Muller.

One, they claim that not only do they represent the people, but that whoever does not support them is, by definition, not part of 'the people'. Muller says this is "the core claim of populism: only some of the people are really the people." As Trump put it in May last year, "the only important thing is the unification of the people— because the other people don't mean anything." Think of how the BJP treats Muslims and Dalits as second-class citizens.

Two, populists are not just anti-pluralism, but they're also anti-elite. Muller writes, "Populists pit the pure, innocent, always hardworking people against a corrupt elite who do not really work (...) and, in right-wing populism, also against the very bottom of society." Think of Modi's railings against the "Lutyens elite".

Three, they portray themselves as victims even when they are in power. As Muller puts it, "majorities act like mistreated minorities." Modi still rants against the elite even though he is now their leader, and paid BJP trolls still call journalists 'presstitutes' even though they control much of the media. Trump, who has been a crony capitalist insider all his life, is a classic example of a pig calling the pigsty dirty.

Four, populist parties tend to become monolithic, "with the rank-and-file clearly subordinated to a single leader." Trump decimated the Republican Party on the way up, just as Modi is now the Supreme Leader within the BJP, which once had multiple leaders of stature.

Five, populists pride themselves on their "proximity to the people." Modi being a 'chaiwalla' is a key part of his narrative, and as that famous photoshopped picture of him sweeping a floor shows, the common-man element is important to him. As it is, indeed, to other populists. Hungary's Viktor Orban and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez both hosted shows similar to Modi's Mann Ki Baat.

Six, populism is simplistic, so populists can only think in simplistic terms, which can lead to "an oversimplification of policy challenges." Modi's demonetisation is an example of this, as is Trump's attribution of America's job losses to immigration and outsourcing.
Seven, they tend to believe in conspiracy theories, which "are rooted in and emerge from the very logic of populism itself." Indeed, the RSS's view of history is itself a sort of giant conspiracy theory.

How do populists behave once in power? Muller outlines three things that they tend to do.

Three, they shut down dissent in civil society, starting with NGOs. Muller writes, "rulers like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary, and PiS in Poland have gone out of their way to try to discredit NGOs as being controlled by outside powers (and declare them 'foreign agents')." Sounds familiar?
I'll leave you with a pleasant thought, though. Here's why I think both Modi's and Trump's populism will ultimately fail. The narratives of populism, based on some of the people being all of the people, only work in broadly homogenous societies.

The US will be a minority-majority country by the middle of the century (ie, whites will be less than 50% of the population), and a Trump won't be possible then. As for India, our diversity is our greatest defence against creeping fascism. Populism might work at the state level, but nationally, we are too diverse. That puts a ceiling on how much support Modi can get, which I believe already peaked in 2014, when he could be all things to all people. I think he already senses this. How will he respond?


* Views expressed above are the author's own.