Populism has the message that the elites are corrupt and we can solve issues by just selecting the right people to lead us.
Populism assumes that there is a such thing as "will of the people" and the job of the government is to simply implement this will.
Any insightful local Venezuelans for any comments except template-based mundane political statements?
What's the reverse of populism in the case of Venezuela? Going easy and decreasing tensions with US and allies and reverting sanctions and attracting foreign investments, like some other south American countries? Or what? any insights?
- pay all of the alleged debts without discuss
- accept US military and political counselors
- Allow an alien actor to open multiple military bases in your country
- Stop exporting and start importing everything you can from America
Typical populist belief is that popular sovereignty is expressed in elections and with grand referendums. At the same time they wall over other institutions needed for liberal democracy. They also work to delegitimize their opponents and make them enemies. As a result, they pack all other institutions with loyalists.
What they should have done, is to acknowledge that supporters of the old system are also Venezuelans. They must be incorporated in the system relative to their support. They should have enacted laws and improved legals system that is independent no matter who is in charge and harder to corrupt.
The whole "populism" / "socialists" thing is the American media projecting its fury at US oil companies getting kicked out in the 90s. There were many things they did to economically mismanage the country but that wasn't one of them and neither was building hospitals, schools and housing with wealth wrested from economic elites and American oil companies.
The best thing that could happen to them would be for oil to lose its geopolitical importance. Then the rest of the economy could rexover and the proxy fighting between can end and the Dutch disease can end.
Meanwhile, they probably will put the opposition in power next election, which American media will approve of, but it won't make things any better.
Populism and good economic policies repel each other.
They see person problems instead of system problems. They want to solve issues one by one instead of using general principles.
Because democracy is supposed to implement the will of the people .. so populism?
But I don't think we should abandom democracy, but maybe make the system simpler, smaller - easier for people to understand. So more power back to the local communitys, instead of up and zentralized.
A) nobody is able to discern whether or not something is true without an astronomical amount of effort and resources therefore we resort to deeply flawed heuristics
B) We are not rational creatures. Logic is mostly wasted on us. All decisions are ultimately emotional and often it's made by unconsciously substituting an easier question and deciding based off your answer to that.
C) Incentives are extremely powerful motivators. They can cause us to do bad, nasty things to get a reward.
D) A person sufficiently motivated by the incentives of being the sole person in control of all the resources can and will routinely use the flaws in our psychology against us to their advantage.
Humans basically don't stand a chance. The fact that England and the US happened is freaking miracle. Interestingly in all cases where they system of humanity converged on a democracy was when there was a broad coalition of people with different interests who would all benefit from opposing the ruler. The scary thing is that it can all go back the other way. Even the US can collapse and fall into this kind of nightmare. I think from 2000 to 2015 was the golden era of humanity and we are now on a slow and steady descent into madness.
The poor policies resulted from first an elite ignoring the poor and then the poor deciding they wanted majority rule. Majority rule devolved into anti-intellectualism and reduced respect for property rights, which in turn led to falling production. Populism isn't the root cause, but it's damn close.
(This story rhymes with the fall of the Roman Republic.)
You're taking about someone who claims Hugo Chavez appeared to him as a "little bird". Really https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/nicolas-maduro-hug...
So basically Switzerland is doomed is what you're saying
Will of the people don't exist as starting point. It is the end result of complex democratic process and interaction with democratic institutions.
The proper end result is not what any interest group wants but hopefully a negotiated result that represents a deal that most people can accept. We should try to improve this process, not to make it streamlined and as short as possible.