Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013–2020)

Abstract

Populism and technocracy reject vertical accountability and horizontal accountability. Populism and technocracy can combine to form ‘technocratic populism.’ The study assesses the extent to which democratic decay can be traced to the actions of technocratic populists as opposed to institutional factors, civil society, fragmentation and polarization. The main findings of this article are that technocratic populism has illiberal tendencies expressed best in its efforts at executive aggrandizement (cf. Bermeo, 2016). Without an effective bulwark against democratic erosion (cf. Bernhard, 2015), technocratic populism tends to undermine electoral competition (vertical accountability), judiciary independence, legislative oversight (horizontal accountability), and freedom of the press (diagonal accountability). The most effective checks on technocratic populist in power, this study finds, are the courts, free media, and civil society. This article highlights the mechanisms of democratic decay and democratic resilience beyond electoral politics. It indicates that a combination of institutional veto points and civil society agency is necessary to prevent democratic erosion (cf. Weyland, 2020). While active civil society can prevent democratic erosion, it cannot reverse it. Ultimately, the future of liberal democracy depends on the people’s willingness to defend it in the streets AND at the ballot box.

Varieties of Dependency, Varieties of Populism: Neoliberalism and the Populist Countermovements in the Visegrád Four

“…ANO has so far presented itself as a technocratic populist party. Although some of PM Babiš's moves eroded democratic quality-such as increasing pressure on state media by capturing media oversight bodies and channelling state-controlled advertising towards his own companies-other attempts at putting pressure on courts or civil society have so far failed (Guasti 2020). Thus, the Czech Republic has not experienced an illiberal breakthrough comparable to Poland or Hungary and continues along a technocratic neoliberal economic trajectory.…”

Technocratic Populism à la Française? The Roots and Mechanisms of Emmanuel Macron’s Success

“…Technocratic populism as a 'thin ideology' is based on the rejection of the traditional political parties and on the promise of apolitical expert solutions that benefit the 'ordinary people' (Buštíková & Guasti, 2019) As showed by Buštíková and Guasti, "it combines the ideology of expertise with a populist political appeal to ordinary people," "technocratic populism uses the ideology of numbers and the ideology of expert knowledge to appeal directly to the voters using an anti-elite, populist rhetoric" (Buštíková & Guasti, 2019, p. 305). Interestingly the technocratic populism undermines the principle of horizontal and vertical accountability, as Caramani showed (Caramani, 2017;Guasti, 2020).…”

“…Similarly to the pension reform, the Covid-19 crisis also follows the technocratic populist playbook (cf. Buštíková & Babos, 2020;Guasti, 2020). During the pandemic's initial phase, the President was mostly absent, and the government in charge.…”

Technocratic Populism in Hybrid Regimes: Georgia on My Mind and in My Pocket

“…Technocratic populism is distinguished in part by its absence of political ideology, its unmediated relation with voters and its emphasis on expert knowledge as a source of legitimacy. It 'just gets things done,' and emphasizes trust in the leader (Guasti, 2020). The six party coalition forged by Ivanishvili in 2011-2012 was an ideological mixture of rather incompatible political voices, including left-centrist (Georgian Dream itself), liberals (Republicans, Free Democrats), centerrights (Industrialist), and nationalists (Conservative Party, National Forum) as well as few individuals representing pre-Rose Revolution era political and business groups, who saw the opportunity to return to the political scene (Atilgan & Aprasidze, 2013).…”

“…Technocratic populists do not necessarily pit the elite vs. the 'people,' especially when in power, but instead carve out a category of the 'ordinary people' (Buštíková & Babos, 2020;Buštíková & Guasti, 2019). As an outputoriented governance strategy, technocratic populism supplants the traditional right-left political landscape by appealing to the people with all-purpose expertise garnered outside politics (Guasti, 2020). Despite its potentially broad applicability, technocratic populism as a framework has mostly been applied to analyzing democracies under stress in Western Europe (Silvio Berlusconi in Italy), Eastern Europe (Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic) and Latin America (Rafael Correa in Ecuador).…”