Defending democracy: Militant and popular models of democratic self‐defense

Abstract

With the electoral victories of authoritarian populists in a range of parliamentary democracies in recent years, there has been a growing unease with the ability of existing democratic institutions to keep such authoritarian threats under control. The election of authoritarian leaning figures in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Brazil, Russia, and the United States has led many to doubt the capacity of the institutions of parliamentary democracy to protect themselves against democratic backsliding. This perceived inability for democratic self-defense has led to a resurgence of academic interest in the idea of militant democracy in recent years (Abts & Rummens, 2010; Cappocia, 2013; Kaltwasser, 2019; Kirshner, 2014; Malkopoulou & Kirshner, 2019; Müller, 2012; Sajo, 2012). The concept of militant democracy was originally coined by the German-Jewish émigré and constitutional scholar Karl Loewenstein, who in two articles in APSR in 1937 sought to develop ways in which representative democracies could respond to the emergence of fascism. Loewenstein's argument was that free and equal political elections could open the path for a fascist dismantling of representative democracy via democratic means. Consequently, democracy had to become militant and safeguard itself by compromising with its foundational principles of freedom and equality by prohibiting extreme political parties and by curtailing the political rights of extremists (Loewenstein, 1937a, 1937b). As such, it is not difficult to see why contemporary scholars want to revive Loewenstein's idea of militant democracy as a response to populism. The main threat to present-day democracies, many argue, does not stem from revolutionary movements, which seek to subvert democracy through insurrection (Runciman, 2018, pp. 2–3; Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018, pp. 5–6), but rather from the gradual erosion of democratic norms and institutions by elected political leaders. Contemporary political leaders such as Donald Trump in the United States, Victor Orban in Hungary, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Poland, Recep Erdogan in Turkey, and Vladimir Putin in Russia have all ascended to power via more or less legitimate electoral channels and have—to a varying degree—centralized power, dissolved institutional checks and balances, and rolled back political rights. Moreover, contemporary populists display an antipluralist, anti-institutional, and authoritarian interpretation of popular sovereignty, insofar as many populist leaders claim to be the true representative of the people, denying the political legitimacy of political opposition and constitutional limits to the executive (Finchelstein, 2017; Müller, 2016a; Rummens, 2017)1. Although militant democratic measures were developed to combat fascism in the 1930s, neo-militant models try to contain contemporary right-wing populism and prevent further democratic backsliding. Consequently, neo-militant democrats have developed institutional and juridical ways of limiting the political influence of elected populists and populist movements (Abts & Rummens, 2010; Kirshner, 2014; Müller, 2012; Tyulkina, 2015). The remedy to right-wing populism from such neo-militant democrats often involves restricted access to the political sphere either in the form of party bans (Bourne, 2012), restrictions and political rights (Abts & Rummens, electoral or the of institutions constitutional 2018, for Levitsky and that the and institutional for the election of a populist such as Donald Trump was the of institutions and the of the of political parties in the in elections & Ziblatt, 2018, pp. in argument is that the by the & Ziblatt, 2018, of free and a pp. the to contain a populist in is to constitutional as of the of militant to populism and the of democratic has been an of the and of the militant democracy in the with the recent of a form of militant as a response to the authoritarian such with of a party or rights to of as the a party in but its for political or for the party As such, many who the of of as in extreme popular movements and populist as an and to the political of right-wing who the of an The of in of through and of an and as such the remedy is to the popular access to the political sphere and institutions constitutional or party to populist measures the militant democratic developed by As such, to of populism argue, the of freedom and equality which is be for political and & Rummens, This of the authoritarian threats to democracy has As such, that the and of with and of militant democracy be with less and to democratic The with the of democratic self-defense by militant democracy is a that the idea of democratic institutions by limiting popular and is as its a and of power to and or an that a militant to democratic self-defense its as the of popular by the political the political which populists as the militant of democratic self-defense a a popular and political such as or it by the an and through which authoritarian populist to remedy a to the militant democratic as militant democrats that existing institutions of parliamentary democracy have with authoritarian threats from the militant with a popular of democratic This popular of democratic from popular and institutional ways of rather democratic a popular of democratic self-defense involves not an of the to democracy from authoritarian but to threats from and to the of democracy to the of political power of the and of militant democracy as a remedy to the contemporary of an which the idea of institutions of power in to combat is to that existing political militant and popular in of democratic a democratic its constitutional militant a of with popular in the and political militant and popular models of democratic self-defense as that the ways in which the models either or popular as a to the democratic to the is the by the and contemporary for militant democracy as democratic by the of that the of militant democracy is not a of a democracy in and to and as such, militant democracy does not a of but rather a of in the the of an of democratic self-defense through a with institutional in the and form the of a popular for the of democracy that in to the militant does not seek to but rather popular in democratic democracy is a for and political to prevent political to in a constitutional with a representative The idea of militant democracy is that democracies, in to protect under the rights and access to the political for who seek to democracy As who populism an political have to of militant democracy in to contain the threat of populism & Rummens, Loewenstein's of militant democracy was in two articles from 1937 in which democratic the threat by fascist As such, militant democracy is an to a political that in the with the of representative and democracy of free and with the freedom of and movements the democratic to democracy As of be of the of democracy that it its the to in & a to the democratic principles of free and equal access to the political the democratic and it by its (Loewenstein, 1937a, such democratic the of authoritarian movements the democratic of elections to democracy (Loewenstein, 1937a, to democracy itself become that democracy in the of its the of it to the of the and be to the and of (Loewenstein, 1937a, involves a of democracy by the electoral freedom of the in the form of of freedom of by prohibiting to and against of the as as prohibiting against democratic and of the (Loewenstein, pp. As such, by militant democratic democratic have the of and the of or not from the (Loewenstein, militant democracy as a of democratic self-defense by of the democratic itself a of political which the of the authoritarian is to Contemporary neo-militant democrats have Loewenstein's and from authoritarian measures in to the restrictions rights of political with the principles of democracy neo-militant democrats and and militant measures to the and not (Bourne, that have legitimate political which as as not the to of pp. for a the threat of political as to and political power & Rummens, democracy has to a the of the populism As such, that militant democracy is in its of the political it to as the threat to the democratic not from the of and in its to and not in its The the of militant democratic is an that to in militant democracy is an as the of political is to elected or The is often with which is and As Malkopoulou and have militant democracy is and of which as a threat that political to by the the democratic and its As in an by militant democracy as of a the in juridical measures to the democratic against its for a more by which a political and its to to with or of militant the of the is that democratic self-defense in the militant is the of political militant democratic of self-defense and of political in open political the and of democracy militant democracy and it from the of the party bans and restrictions rights of and in to political the of democratic self-defense that develop political by the through institutional the militant political by the access to the sphere for the of militant democracy is not and but and contemporary populism that the of populists is to a the and and the and (Finchelstein, 2017; 2018, pp. Müller, pp. parties from the political as as from political further to the which contemporary of democracy is an claim the of militant democratic measures is for political argue, militant of self-defense a a popular against political the an and through which authoritarian populist to there to militant democracy with of democratic which of the of militant that as as open to legitimate and political that militant democracy is an and that the the of democracy with its and political This for the argument of who that constitutional democracy to be as to with of political that often in the of and often democratic it not be for As the and of militant democracy as a of existing of not the of with that democracy as it has been in the constitutional is a democracy and militant democracy of the rather to militant democracy is not a but rather a of in the the of of to its back to and the the 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