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Visiting academic Massimo Morelli says rising populism poses a threat to marginalised groups and Kiwis should be careful.
Kiwis should be concerned about the rise of populism in the West, a style of politics that poses a threat to people from marginalised communities, an academic says.
Massimo Morelli is a professor of political science and economics at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He was delivering a public lecture, The Shift to Commitment Politics and Populism, on Thursday evening at the University of Auckland.
“Trust in government, trust in politics, trust in institutions and markets have all significantly gone down in most Western democracies, and especially so after the financial crisis,” Morelli said.
“Both civil liberties and democratic checks and balances and separation of powers are in danger in US and some European countries.
“NZ is so far in better political shape… but social media polarisation is high and turnout among young people is not high, early signs of a confidence reduction.”
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Morelli said if trust in parties and politicians goes down, voters prefer to ask for simple policy commitments.
“Like the wall with Mexico by Trump as a symbol of protection from immigrants, or ‘America first’ as symbol of protection from global markets,” he said.
“These commitments and the consequent populist anti-elite rhetoric and anti-bureaucracy, anti-media, anti-judiciary stances are all extremely bad.”
Populism refers to political stances that emphasise the idea of “the people” against “the elite”, and is associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.
Morelli said it poses a threat to marginalised groups.
“Populism brings both voters and politicians to want to increase executive power and reduce all other powers, parliament, bureaucracy, judiciary, media,” he said.
“All these are important agencies of restraint also against exploitation of marginalised minorities.”
Morelli believes New Zealand is one of the very few democracies that can escape populism in its most dangerous form.
Sue Ogrocki/AP
Populism is characterised by anti-establishment sentiment and is a style used by former US president Donald Trump.
“New Zealand is one of the best 20 countries in the world in terms of electoral system, political participation, political culture, pluralism and civil liberties,” he said.
“Being sheltered to some extent from immigration threats in large scale, being a beneficiary of globalisation to some extent, and being subject to smaller international constraints, the causes of distrust have not materialised.”
But he said the polarisation of political views is happening, social media is not helping, and inflation and recession can generate increasing economic insecurity.
This can generate distrust and start the “vicious circle”.
“Hence it is important to take lessons from international experience and take seriously these early signs, help increase again the participation of young voters and help diversity to further increase and people of different cultures to co-operate,” he said.
Before his lecture,Morelli also spoke at a roundtable event exploring the topic of resilient democracies.
“A democracy is resilient when the three pillars of market freedom, welfare protection for the poor and people in need, and civil liberties are protected in a balanced way,” he said.
“Hence having a good electoral system is not enough. Elections are not enough to guarantee democratic life.”
The 2023 New Zealand general election will take place on October 23.
Populist party New Zealand First is on track to return parliament, with a Taxpayers Union-Curia poll earlier this month placing them at 5.8%.
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