Populist concept for protecting human rights in the crisis of conciliatory political systems

• Main Author: Viktor N. Rudenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy and Law 2019-12-01
• Series: Антиномии
• Subjects: rconciliatory political system; liberal democracy; neoliberalism; populism; human rights; “people”; “people's rights”; anti-elitism; ethnic nationalism; political egocentrism; democratic extremism; authoritarianism
• Online Access: http://yearbook.uran.ru/images/files/4-19_7.pdf

The article reveals content of the modern crisis of the conciliatory political systems and the growth of populism caused by it. According to author’s opinion, the crisis of the conciliatory political systems is determined by the following factors: the elitist character of the modern democracy; traditional political parties’ loss of the interest’s representation function; transformation of the social structure, in particular, the appearance of precariat and other social groups with unprotected rights. The author sees these processes in the context of the recent dominance of such type of rationality as neoliberalism. He shows how neoliberal politics contributed to the destruction of the foundations of liberal democracy, and the formation of a populist scenario of protecting the rights of citizens. He characterizes the main features of this scenario: anti-elitism, ethnic nationalism, and political egocentrism. The author argues that the disadvantage of such strategy is shifting the focus from the universal concept of protecting human rights to the particularistic concept of protecting the rights of “people”; restriction of the rights of social groups that do not correspond to the concept of “people”; democratic extremism and authoritarianism. In the author’s opinion, and in connection with the growth of the populist threat, it is necessary to find ways to reconcile the interests of all social groups in modern society