The Perils of Populism

An epitaph for the 20th Century could very well be Socialism; Fascism; and Communism.

The world experienced the advent of all three "ism's" with tragic consequences in the latter two and interesting incursions into the basic capitalist setup by the former.

Socialism and Communism developed to combat the perceived injustices of capitalism combined in many cases with the remnants of monarchism and the established class systems.

Fascism on the other hand was designed to restore some warped perception of past glory essentially recreating a monarchical caste to "defend" against the ravages of Socialism not to mention Communism.

They all have the requirement for an enemy or scapegoat: the rich; the poor; the Jew; basically the "other" against whom they can rant and rave.

In this aspect they all have the potential to fall prey to the latent disease inherent in democracy-
populism.

For populism has the ability to take a kernel of truth and turn it into a monster of exaggeration and lies.

Take the recent vote of the Swiss which passed a referendum to limit immigration with the slightest of majorities- 0.6%.

Two million out of a total Swiss population of eight million are foreign. 

The largest contingent are Italians who make up just under a third.  The second largest are Germans who make up a little less and lastly the Portuguese who make up the majority of the rest.

The Germans are almost exclusively in the professional classes.  The Italians are professional and skilled labour and the Portugese provide a significant part of the menial labour and the lower eschelons of the health care.

The majority of the foreign workers are in the cities.  The "no" vote- that is the vote not to introduce limitations on immigration came from the cities.  The "yes" vote- the anti-foreign vote- came from the countryside where the number of immigrants is minimal.

A perfect example of the creation of a scapegoat, of fomenting fear and loathing of the unknown by a populist, nationalist xenophobic movement .

Unfortunately this seems to be the traditional route taken by the Right.  Create an enemy.  Exaggerate the danger.  Come to power.  And then consolidate your position by creating ever more scapegoats.

My problem is not the Swiss.  They are a relatively small group and don't appear to have territorial aims in Europe.

My concern is that every other right wing populist party in the EU will now latch on to the Swiss example and parlay that into a "seat at the table" of the political elites.

This has happened before.

It didn't end well.

Simple answers to complex questions don't really exist.

But they are alluring.