- Interns of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen completed their project - December 6, 2024
- Populism discussed by Hans Blokland at a conference of the Humboldt-Foundation. - November 6, 2024
- Akram Yahiaoui interns at Social Science Works - November 2, 2024
At a conference of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn on November 4, Hans Blokland delivered a pulse lecture on populism: what is it, what causes it, what can we do about it? A range of possible measures and changes were considered. We come back at this later at length. But some ideas were, in short:
Turn social media public.
Germany rightfully invested massively into public broadcasting to safeguard pluralism, quality journalism, openness and transparency. The concentration of power that has taken place in this sphere is totally at odds with the underlying rationality of this public broadcasting system. Democracy is too important to put it in the hands of monopolists like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. So, split these communication empires up, regulate them, create alternatives with public money, bring them under democratic control.
Political education.
When social, political complexity grows, political competences should increase as well. They do not. It is an odd thing that democracies hardly devote attention to political education, as if democracy is a hobby, comparable to soccer or gardening.
Additionally, the platforms where democracy could be learned by doing it, by participating in democratic decision-making processes, are disappearing: membership of political parties and other civic organizations is declining, more and more organizations are run by professionals. The development of democratic structures in other than strictly political spheres never came off the ground (think of economic democracy), despite . Society is falling apart, atomism is ruling.
Accept that most people need much more social stability, community and societal predictability then representatives of cosmopolitan cultures are willing to admit.
Rapid and profound cultural, social and economic changes that do not seem to be under the control of or are even encouraged by 
politics seem to play an important role in the development of populism. The experiences in East-Germany after the unification in 1989 are illustrative. Local tradition, individuality and identity are felt threatened by academics, experts, expats, journalists, artists, metropolitans, cosmopolitans, LGBTQIA+ and other bearers of inquiry, change, diversity, pluralism and universalism. Those involved are attributed elitism and arrogance, as well as a fundamental lack of understanding and respect for the lives of ordinary people. This life is tied to local traditions and offers truths and wisdom that displaced, other-worldly liberals and intellectuals lack.
Ban political parties that seek the irreversible ending of democratic doubt.
Democracy is based on doubt. Freedom of expression and association, political and social pluralism are allowed because we are not sure what the right answers are to which problems. Therefore, all decisions are in principle reversible: we changed our minds, we got new information or insights, the circumstances changed. Undemocratic political parties that do not have this doubt, that want to bring an end to this reversibility, do not belong in a democratic system and should be banned.
Put an end to the end of history: reinvent real politics.
The widespread feeling that societal transformations cannot be controlled and steered in preferred directions (anymore) by average citizens seems pivotal in explanations for populism. Triumphant, complacent, neo-liberal declarations of The End of Politics or The End 
of History (Francis Fukuyama), popular in the nineties after the demise of the Soviet Union, are poisonous for democracy, as are statements that current policies are “Alternativlos” (without alternative, Angela Merkel). This feeling of loss of control furthers the longing for strong, autocratic leaders with simple, drastic solutions for complicated problems. Political parties need to think big again and offer visions about where we want to go with our societies.[1]
Expand democracy: Deliberation.
Willy Brandt famously declared in 1969 „Wir wollen mehr Demokratie wagen“ (We want to dare more democracy). This is now more than a half century ago. Since then we did not make much progress when it comes to the democratization of our societies. We need many more platforms where people can exert influence on decision-making processes that affect their life. Democracy is not just a political method to translate existing preferences into decisions and policies. Democracy is also a political culture where one develops preferences through an exchange of ideas, values and visions and builds a political community with shared values and goals. Democracy does not just produce decisions, but decisions based on insight, knowledge, mutual respect and geared to the public good. In creating these decisions, we develop a democratic culture with shared values and goals. No democratic structure can survive in the long turn without this democratic culture. In the last decades we have increasingly forgotten about this dimension of politics and we should reverse this trend by massively expanding democracy, especially via all sorts of deliberation. Deliberation does not replace existing democratic institutions but is an extension.[2]
Notes
[1] I went into this in Pluralism, Democracy and Political Knowledge (London and New York: Routledge 2011, 2016). (https://hans-blokland.nl/books/pluralism-democracy-and-political-knowledge).
[2] For the forms deliberation could have for which kind of goals, see Resisting democratic decline: deliberation and some lessons from Germany and beyond, as well as Talking Politics and Society Again; Reengaging with Fellow Citizens. (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. February 2025).