Anhua Tu
12/11/19
Populism affect Brexit
Populism and Brexit
Nowadays, because of the prevalence of globalization and the advancement of information technology, the individual begins to pay close attention to the affair in other cities or countries instead of limiting to the event happened around them. In many countries, the focus of events is no longer limited to local citizens but extends globally. In addition, in some democratic-loving countries, it is the duty of every citizen to understand and participate in some national events, such as the participation of American citizens in the election of state managers and the British people participating in the vote to leave the European Union. One of the reasons why people are paying more attention to social events is because people start to value and enforce their rights and obligations. Humans try to express their thoughts through these rights. Increasing the number of incidents shows that people become to understand their rights deeply, and at the same time, the government has given more and more rights to the people. Many countries are no longer completely constrained by the government. One specific example is Brexit. In 2016, the UK referendum decision to leave the European Union, which is also called Brexit. The EU is an economic and political union involving 28 European countries. It allows free trade and free movement of people, to live and work in whichever country they choose. This event shocked the whole world because this decision was neither made by the parliament nor the national leaders, but by a vote of the British people, and undoubtedly, once this decision becomes a reality, it will have a huge change in the status quo in Britain and even change the pattern in Europe. Even though, until now, Britain has not completed the Brexit move, this action still has impressive impacts around the world.
Thus, here is a question: why the British have such large power to influence the decision even to make the decision? What kinds of the power behind those individuals? How that thing impact Britain even the world? The answer is populism. Populism is a political word refers to a range of political stances that emphasise the idea of “the people” and often juxtapose this group against “the elite”. Generally speaking, populism is a group of politicians which represents people’s idea and try to achieve it. In the history of populism, it came from America and Europe referring to the group of farmers tried to control the radical behavior from local government. Because the rotten rule of government in the United States and Russia at the end of the 19th century, which hindered the development of productive forces and social progress, the first populists affirmed the ideas of the civilian population and actively promoted the civilian movement. Even after populism began to decline after 1920s, such political ideas still existed on the political stage. However, at the end of the 20th century, populism re-emerged in Eastern Europe and North America. Most people believe that all-important decisions about the country will be definitely made by the leader of the country and that is a part which ordinary individuals can not touch. However, it turns out that people’s idea plays an important role in some national events. In those countries, the civilian can affect the decision made by the leader, which also proves that the country is no longer completely controlled by the leader. Britain is a country where populism is developing very fast based on the background of European politics. Perhaps before Brexit, one could not imagine that the existence of people was so important to a country, which can affect the country to make a decision. The Brexit plan was first launched in 2013 by former British Prime Minister Cameron, but in the next three years, there was no substantial development. In June 2016, the UK opened a referendum and decided to leave the European Union. This is why the Brexit bill has been enforced for the next three years from 2016 to 2019. We all know that decisions made by a country should be based on the interests of the people, and the birth of populism is to represent the people. Therefore, people can affect the decision made by the country. However, does populism really represent people’s thoughts? Is the influence of populism on Brexit positive or negative? Is populism necessary or harmful for the development of a country? Those will be discussed later in the paper.
Why populism can affect the decision made by the country? “Populism is the label political elites attach to policies supported by ordinary citizens that they don’t like,” said American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama. Theoretically, populism is defined as a group of people putting extreme emphasis on the values and ideals of the civilian population, and making civilianization and popularization the ultimate source of legitimacy for all political movements and political systems. The government will rely on the civilian population to carry out radical reforms in society and regard the ordinary people as the sole determinant of political reform. It seems like populism is positive stuff because it represents the people’s idea and they can help civilians to achieve their purpose. However, that is not all about populism. On the surface, populism centers on the people, but actually lacks the concepts of individuals’ dignity and basic rights of citizens. Populists worship the people but have a contemptuous attitude towards the individual. Populists oppose authority with flags emphasizing civilian thinking but no one else can. Moreover, populist movements are often led by charismatic leaders and have little internal democracy and accountability. These leaders tend to develop personality cults and, when they come to power, they often turn authoritarian. Those problems will contribute to democracy deficit which is the government’s political governance and public opinion differ greatly, that is, the social system and management model constructed by senior managers are not supported by democracy if the populists do not achieve the idea of civilians. Its anti-elitism and extreme emphasis on the values and ideas of the civilian masses destined that populism could only be an ideological existence on the political stage, and could not become the mainstream development path. In the case of Brexit, populism’s role is to promote people’s emotions. With the idealized social performance after Brexit, populists are the backup of those supporters. To convince the British to support Brexit, the populists have proposed many benefits to be gained after Brexit. “Brexiteers argued that leaving the EU would result in an immediate cost-saving, as the country would no longer contribute to the EU budget”, said by The Week, “In 2016, Britain paid in 13.1 billion pounds, but it also received 4.5 billion pounds worth of spending, so the UK’s net contribution was 8.5 billion pound”. Even if European Union provides a free trade market for all EU countries, if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, it will still be able to become an independent economic entity, as the Singapore-style economy, without the EU’s containment and management. Moreover, leaving the European Union also means the United Kingdom can completely regain control of domestic affairs.
This picture shows the percentage of votes in favor of and against Brexit. It can be seen from the picture that even if the difference of percentage between the two sides is not very large, the number of people supporting the Brexit still has a big advantage.
Even though we cannot ignore the disadvantage of populism and its negative effect on Brexit, the original intention of populism is still positive. Due to the long-standing trouble of populism in Europe and the recent escalation of Brexit, the impact of populism has gradually increased and has become one of the most concerned political phenomena in Europe. “Populism seeks and thrills to the authentic voice of the people,” said George Packer in The NEW YORKER, “there are more examples of populists who, while failing to win the national election, extend the parameters of discourse and ultimately bring about important reforms”. When important concerns of the people are not addressed by the elites, the populist movements tend to form to challenge the establishment. Their ideas can rejuvenate democracy, bring new people into the political process, and adjust the political system to societal change. Relating to the reason that Brexit happened, the reason why populism is so popular in Britain is that more than half of British citizens choose to let Britain leave the EU, and populism chooses to unite with them. As everyone knows, the reason for Brexit happening is voting by the British.
Everything exists for a reason. Populism is a complicated concept not only because of its ups and downs but also because of its different influences in different backgrounds. Individuals cannot completely define a thing as good or bad. After discussion in the paper, one thing is certain: populism has indeed had a huge impact on Brexit. Meanwhile, we can learn the significance of people’s existence and ideas to a country.
picture1: https://news.sky.com/story/what-happens-now-after-brexit-divorce-deal-defeat-11678167
Picture 2: https://www.bbc.com/news/politics/eu_referendum/results
Thomas Sampson. (2017). Brexit: The Economics of International Disintegration. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(4), 163. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.44425386&site=eds-live&scope=site
Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU. (2019, October 29). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887.
Brexit: the pros and cons. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.theweek.co.uk/brexit-0.
Lehne, S. (n.d.). Populism: The Risks and Impact on European States. Retrieved from https://carnegieeurope.eu/2017/06/06/populism-risks-and-impact-on-european-states-pub-71170.
Packer, G. (2019, July 9). The Pros and Cons of Populism. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/the-populists.