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The Rise of New Populist Parties in Central and Eastern Europe

Published:2018-06-14 Published:2018-06-14   Author:Xiang Zuotao   [Small] [Middle] [Big] [More]

 The new populism among Eastern Central European (ECE) countries is a heart-empty ideology. Instead, its policy is simply “to satisfy the electorate.” Instead of proposing new issues on the agenda, the new populist parties only “aggregate public opinion” and make use of any proposals that are appealing to the masses. The transition of ECE countries has engendered various problems such as dissatisfactory economic growth, declining class cohesion, weakening representativeness of traditional parties, and fermented nationalist sentiment, which, coupled with the rise of social media, have all contributed to the emergence of new populism. However, new populist proposals—whether they are mutually reinforcing or contradictory—such as economic populism, Euroscepticism, anti-elitist politics, and nationalism, are not effective prescriptions for solving current problems for Eastern Central Europe. On the contrary, they can only exacerbate tensions between political parties, between nations, and between the ECE countries and the European Union. They will also push ECE politics toward a more radical direction.

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