The Roots Of Popular Revolt:An Explanatory Research Of The Rise Of New Populism In Western Countries

Populism,which bred in the process of modernization,represents the desire of mankind to control its own destiny in the vast modern sea.In the time of drastic social change,populism often returns intermittently in the name of popular revolt,causing overwhelming political upheavals.Over the past 100 years,the wave of populism has set off huge political waves in different environments and systems around the world,spawned rebellious forces,shaken the current political systems,and affected the development of human politics profoundly.After the end of the Cold War,the populist forces,which dormant in the deep side of Western society for a long time began to rise on the political stage.In recent years,with the crises of Western societies intensified,rebellious populist forces have swept across Europe and the United States with irresistible momentum,reshaped established political ideas and systems,and fundamentally changed these countries’ direction.Populism has become one of the most striking political phenomena of our time.For a while,there were many explanations for the rise of new populism.Based on the existing explanations and economic theory,this article establishes a new framework to explaining the rise of new populism.This framework mainly includes three aspects: demand side,political opportunity structure and supply side.The demand side focuses on the structural changes that have caused the demand and support of populist trends and forces in western societies.In the past decades,Western society has experienced far-reaching transformations,severe crises,and values changes:at the macro level,the historical changes brought about by de-industrialization,globalization,and informatization have caused a huge impact on Western society and created a new round of economic and social reshuffles;at the meso level,the successive economic crisis,refugee crisis and political crisis have brought unprecedented challenges to Western countries;at the micro level,the values and political ideas of Western public have undergone tremendous changes over the past decades.These macro,meso and micro changes have provided fertile ground for the emergence and rise of populism.Second,political opportunity structure refers to the basic arenas in which new populism has grown,that includes constitutional system structure such as the electoral system and the state structure;the political space provided or compressed by mainstream political forces;and the space provided by the political culture and media environment.Third,the supply side is concerned with political actors who have pushed the new populist movement to flourish.Populist parties and populist leaders are the most important populist actors active in the political arena.Their political images and strategies play a significant role in promoting new populism.Based on this framework,this article reviews the populist history and status quo in France,Britain,the United States,and Germany,and analyzes the demand-side,supply-side,and political opportunity structural factors that led to the rise of new populism in four these old democratic countries.The rapid rise of new populism in the West has broken the optimistic assumptions that liberal democracy would triumph,and has profoundly influenced the policies and politics of European and American countries.In terms of policy,the rise of new populism has highlighted the importance of issues such as immigration policy,welfare reform,law and order,and caused the policy shift on these issues in European and American countries.However,populist governance often prefers simplified policy solutions to handle complex governance issues,which may not be helpful or even counterproductive to solve the longstanding political problems in Western countries.Politically,the rise of populism in Western democracies poses severe challenges to the fundamental institutions on which these countries operate: check and balance,political norms and representative system.However,comparing this challenge to the rise of fascism is either out of vicious political attack or intellectual ignorance.In fact,the rise of new populism is a symptom of the Western society in crisis and a warning of the Western democracy’s failure.Therefore,for a democratic government in deep crisis,the rise of populism is a manifestation of its need for self-correction.To cope with this populist wave,Western countries must make systematic reforms to reduce economic inequality,respond to cultural anxiety,and increase political responsiveness.Only in this way can Western democracies turn crisis into opportunity and turn the challenge of new populist pose to liberal democracy into an opportunity for self-correction.