Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:40:55.174Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Alternative Account of the Populist Backlash in the United States: A Perspective from Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2019

Berk Esen  and
Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi
Berk Esen
Affiliation:
Bilkent University
Şebnem Yardımcı-Geyikçi
Affiliation:
Hacettepe University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars tend to assume that consolidated democracies are free from the global retreat of democracy due to their strong institutions and economic development. Yet, populist forces that challenge the liberal democratic model have started to increase their support even in Western countries. However, in no country has democratic backsliding taken scholars by more surprise than in the United States. This article addresses the question of how a populist figure like Donald Trump managed to win the presidential election and subsequently undermined the democratic institutions in one of the world’s oldest democracies. We contend that the upsurge of populist leaders in contemporary Western democracies resulted from the political establishment’s failure to juggle responsiveness and responsibility simultaneously. In addition to our discussion of American politics, we draw parallels with the Turkish case to demonstrate our causal argument and offer suggestions on how to reverse democratic backsliding in the United States.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 445 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Al Jazeera. 2018. “Trump Picks Brett Kavanaugh for US Supreme Court: What to Know.” July 10. Available at www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/trump-supreme-court-nomination-180709104541613.html.Google Scholar
Bardi, Luciano, Bartolini, Stefano, and Trechsel, Alexander H.. 2014. “Responsive and Responsible? The Role of Parties in Twenty-First-Century Politics.” West European Politics 37 (2): 235–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, Anthony. 2007. The Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy . London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunce, Valerie J., and Wolchik, Sharon L.. 2011. Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Postcommunist Countries. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Robert J. 2008. “The Quantity and the Quality of Party Systems: Party System Polarisation, its Measurement, and its Consequences.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (7): 899–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2015. “Facing up to the Democratic Recession.” Journal of Democracy 26 (1): 141–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, Amina. 2018. “Trump’s Approval Ratings So Far Are Unusually Stable—and Deeply Partisan.” Pew Research Center, August 1. Available at www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/01/trumps-approval-ratings-so-far-are-unusually-stable-and-deeply-partisan.Google Scholar
Esen, Berk, and Gümüşçü, Şebnem. 2016. “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism in Turkey.” Third World Quarterly 37 (9): 1581–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esen, Berk, and Gümüşçü, Şebnem. 2017. “A Small Yes for Presidentialism: The Turkish Constitutional Referendum of April 2017.” South European Society and Politics 22 (3): 303–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filipovic, Jill. 2016. “The Revenge of the White Man.” Time Magazine, November 10. Available at http://time.com/4566304/donald-trump-revenge-of-the-white-man.Google Scholar
Foa, Roberto Stefan, and Mounk, Yascha. 2016. “The Democratic Disconnect.” Journal of Democracy 27 (3): 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 2016. “Trump and American Political Decay: After the 2016 Election.” Foreign Affairs, November 9. Available at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2016-11-09/trump-and-american-political-decay.Google Scholar
Hale, William, and Ozbudun, Ergun. 2009. Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey: The Case of the AKP. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooghe, Marc, and Dassonneville, Ruth. 2018. “Explaining the Trump Vote: The Effect of Racist Resentment and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51 (3): 528–34.Google Scholar
Huq, Aziz. 2018. “Under Trump, the United States Has Joined the Sad Roster of Backsliding Democracies.” Vox, January 30. Available at www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/1/30/16950680/democratic-backsliding-loss-of-democracy-state-of-union-authoritarian-trump.Google Scholar
Kelemen, R. Daniel. 2017. “Europe’s Other Democratic Deficit: National Authoritarianism in Europe’s Democratic Union.” Government and Opposition 52 (2): 211–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristof, Nicholas. 2018. “Trump’s Threat to Democracy.” New York Times, January 10. Available at www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/opinion/trumps-how-democracies-die.html.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Ziblatt, Daniel. 2018. How Democracies Die. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
MacWilliams, Matthew C. 2016. “Who Decides When the Party Doesn’t? Authoritarian Voters and the Rise of Donald Trump.” PS: Political Science & Politics 49 (4): 716–21.Google Scholar
Mair, Peter. 2008. “The Challenge to Party Government.” West European Politics 31 (1–2): 211–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mair, Peter. 2009. “Representative versus Responsible Government.” Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Working Paper 09/8:1–19.Google Scholar
Mair, Peter. 2013. Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. London: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Morlino, Leonardo. 1998. Democracy between Consolidation and Crisis: Parties, Groups, and Citizens in Southern Europe . Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
New York Times. 2018. “The Senate Should Not Confirm Kavanaugh.” October 3. Available at www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/opinion/kavanaugh-law-professors-letter.html.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2017. “Is Western Democracy Backsliding? Diagnosing the Risks.” Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Research Working Paper Series. March.Google Scholar
Rohac, Dalibor; Kennedy, Liz, and Singh, Vikram. 2018. “Drivers of Authoritarian Populism in the United States.” Center for American Progress. Available at www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/reports/2018/05/10/450552/drivers-authoritarian-populism-united-states.Google Scholar
Schedler, Andreas (ed.). 2006. Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Sedelmeier, Ulrich. 2014. “Anchoring Democracy from Above? The European Union and Democratic Backsliding in Hungary and Romania after Accession.” Journal of Common Market Studies 52 (1): 105–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sides, John, Tesler, Michael, and Vavreck, Lynn. 2017. “The 2016 US Election: How Trump Lost and Won.” Journal of Democracy 28 (2): 34–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tharoor, Ishaan. 2018. “The Political Trend That’s More Important Than ‘Populism.’” Washington Post, February 16. Available at www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/16/the-political-trend-thats-more-important-than-populism/?utm_term=.bb6c4f7df7c0.Google Scholar
Weinschenk, Aaron C. 2018. “That’s Why the Lady Lost to the Trump: Demographics and the 2016 Presidential Election.” Journal of Political Marketing 1–23, 10.1080/15377857.2018.1478657Google Scholar
Yardımcı-Geyikçi, Şebnem. 2014. “Gezi Park Protests in Turkey: A Party Politics View.” The Political Quarterly 85 (4): 445–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar