No Bolsonaro or Duterte: Number of populist leaders at a 20-year low

A recent analysis has shown that the number of populist leaders has fallen to a 20-year low across the world. This comes after several of them registered wins over the past year. The Tony Blair Institute analysis shows that the number of people living under populist rule has fallen by 800 million in two years.

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, who lost the 2022 elections is the biggest name in the list. Then there is Slovenia’s Janez Janša who was also defeated in a close election battle. Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines could not go beyond one term in office, while in Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee the country following protests over the country's financial situation.

According to the report titled "Repel and Rebuild: Expanding the Playbook Against Populism", few more such populist rulers vacate the top posts in 2023. Elections are due in Turkey and Poland which could see the fall of two of the most influential populist governments in the world.

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The report says that 1.7 billion people were living under a populist leader at the start of 2023, compared with 2.5 billion in 2020.

While Latin America has seen the biggest decline in populist rulers, especially with Bolsonaro's defeat, in the US, candidatesbacked by Donald Trump faced defeat in the November midterms recently. Trump is known for promoting rightwing nationalism and conspiracy theories and his candidates endorsed his views and failed to be elected and underperformed against moderates.

“After having defeated several moderate Republicans in swing-state primary elections, the Trump candidates then lost most of these races in November, costing the Republicans control of the Senate and several governorships. Most notably, they lost every state-level election for offices involving election administration in swing states,” the report said.

However, the reports warns that the midterm results do not signal the long-term defeat of cultural populism across the US. Considering the views of Ron DeSantis, a major Republican name that looks set to enter the 2024 race, cultural populism is "cultural populism is likely to remain strong within the Republican party".

How is populism defined? It is mainly determined by two claims-- when a country’s “true people” are locked into a moral conflict with “outsiders” and, second, that nothing should constrain the will of the “true people”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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