Chávez’s style of populism and Thatcher’s enthusiasm for privatization have spawned imitators in many parts of the world. The originals remain charismatic – meaning what exactly?
Why did Erdogan miss his historic opportunity? Inadvertently? Due to exasperation? Or because, more consequentially, he does not identify with those 'European values' that would force him to respect a country that cannot be reduced to its Sunni, Turkish, conservative majority?
The lynching of four Egyptian Shi’a citizens by mobs is raising alarm bells with regard to the potentially tragic consequences of Islamist endorsement of sectarian policies, which threaten not only to rip the country apart but the region as well.
The passionate, lyrical voice of the poet from Martinique was part of a lifework that embraces négritude, Marxism and surrealism all in one, says Nira Wickramasinghe. (This article was first published in openDemocracy on 21 April 2008)
Why do some political scientists seem oblivious to the fact that the ‘moderates’ who let down their electorates are mainly responsible for their own demise? A reply to Catherine Fieschi’s Who’s afraid of the populist wolf?
Far right religious nationalism is growing in South Asia. Fuelled by the experience of colonialism, the resulting internal tensions since independence, and powerful civil society movements.
Clashes in Sidon demonstrate fragmentation within sects, as Sunni Sheikh Assir’s isolated battle against the Lebanese army has been roundly condemned by the majority of the Sunni population.
Civil society in Tunisia is embroiled in a struggle for political power now raging in the transitional period which is divided along secular and Islamist lines.
“A revolution is not just the one carrying the rifle, it is the paintbrush of an artist, the scalpel of a surgeon, the axe of the farmer... Everyone struggles for their cause in the way they see fit. Today I represent Palestine.”
Populism may not be entirely coherent (what ideology is in its lived form?) but it has a consistent logic, and a line of distinction along which it treads that marks it out and accounts for its power. We should beware of falling into the many traps it creates for democrats.
The protests might even help to revive Turkey's moribund accession process to the EU.
Now, after a decade of electoral success and economic growth, governing without a coalition, the army neutralised, in control of the media, the judiciary and the police, Erdogan feels free to move on this crucial symbolic issue of alcohol and its venues.
