he term ‘populism’ is derived from the Latin root word populus which means ‘the people.’ In a democratic polity, people are considered the sole legitimate source of political authority because it is the representatives of ‘the people’ who have authority to form and undo governments as well as take crucial decisions of public policy. Populists, almost everywhere, not only cherish this principle but also preach it. The difference is that they deem one leader and a single party legitimate to represent ‘the people.’ Populists seek power and authority through democratic process but do not believe in engaging the other.

Populist polarisation refers to the social and political division created by populist leaders and political parties who present themselves as ‘genuinely’ representing the people against the ‘corrupt elite’ and the ‘deep state.’ The problem with such polarisation is that it simplifies complex social, political, economic and religious realities so that everything is portrayed through an ‘us vs them’ framework, thereby creating untenable but highly problematic divisions. Hence, populism reifies a general social tendency to look things in black and white, while ignoring the grey areas that contain a larger part of the reality.

Political scientists turned their gaze to populism after Donald Trump’s first victory in the US presidential elections. This has since continued due to the emergence of populist waves later in many countries, including India, Pakistan, Turkey and many European countries. In a 2020 study by a research project DEMOS which focused on European countries, four types of populism were identified: right-wing populism, left-wing populism, illiberal populism and anti-establishment populism, with their overlapping characteristics. Although Asian countries may share similarities with these categories, they exhibit stark differences. Asian populist leaders and parties have certain unique features.

Populism in India and Pakistan is primarily right-wing in nature. It varies in intensity. A unique feature of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is that most of its leadership hails from the same ‘elite’ that it attacks for being corrupt and responsible for Pakistan’s socio-economic and political problems. Nadeem F Paracha argues that “this may be a symptom of intra-class tensions in a society in which cracks have developed within economic elites.” This is discernible from the results of the past electoral cycles in which the PTI has maintained its popularity in urban and elite dwelling areas.

Charismatic leaders and personality cults have been known to South Asian countries for decades. Therefore, populist politics has been part of this region’s political realities, especially with reference to recourse to ultra-nationalism and politicisation of religion. For instance, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s politics have been termed as populist politics by Tahir Kamran in his recent book Chequered Past, Uncertain Future: The History of Pakistan (2024), and by many other writers and political analysts.

Another significant aspect of populist leaders and their politics is their legacy of leaving deep divisions in countries they lead and polarisation of society on multiple lines, including but not limited to politics, economics, religion and culture. They also erode public trust in state institutions, which ultimately damages the state’s legitimacy and its capacity to maintain law and order, collect taxes and have a monopoly of organised violence.

Agitational politics and chaos are regarded as a strategy and a path to transformative change which are used by populist leaders and parties to realise their vision and bring about ‘change.’ This strategy has been used quite often by populist parties in South Asia and particularly in Pakistan. The last decade has witnessed repeated manifestation of agitations, blockades, dharnas (sit-ins) and calls for civil disobedience. “Chaos… has a familiar ring in Pakistan where disruption is the strategy being pursued by a party that is an odd amalgam of conservative right-wing populists and affluent members of the middle class,” writes Maleeha Lodhi, a former ambassador and a political analyst.

The retrogressive forces of populism are stubborn. In some countries they have returned with renewed vengeance. Therefore, the long lasting impacts of populist politics should be a source of concern not only for democracies but also for the one-party dictatorships and authoritarian states. Yuval Noah Harari warns in his recent treatise Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (2024) that “one of the recurrent paradoxes of populism is that it starts by warning us that all human elites are driven by a dangerous hunger for power, but often ends by entrusting all power to a single ambitious human.”

Populist parties and politicians tend to deny that people may contain a diversity of opinions and interest groups. While those who believe in democracy agree that the people are the only legitimate source of power, they also believe that the people are never a unitary entity and, hence, cannot possess a single will: they are different groups with a plurality of opinions and varied interests. No one political opinion or group is entitled to impose its will on others or exclude others from a democratic conversation, dialogue and consensus.

In a well-functioning democracy, state institutions maintain their credibility so that citizens trust the results of elections, the decisions of courts and media reporting. If people are forced to think that power is the only reality, not conversation, dialogue and articulation of legitimate interest, then they lose interest in state institutions and populism is strengthened. The loss of credibility of state institutions, in turn, nurtures populism and societal polarisation which is detrimental to both state and society.

The writer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com His X handle: @AbrarZahoor1