Techno-populism
The structuralist approach to techno-populism emphasizes its social origins and associates it with certain stages of development, especially the attempt at industrialization in countries located at the periphery of the world economy.
This definition is more common to the study of populism in Western Europe and the United States but is largely unknown to mainstream political science because of its association with anti-positivist currents within postmodernism.
Technological populism is diagnosed in the case of blockchain platforms, which use the narrative of empowering ordinary people through decentralized decision-making process, facilitating anonymity of transactions, enabling trust without third parties and combating the monopoly of the financial system regarding money supply.
Even with the development of representative democracy and party governments after the National and Industrial Revolutions of the 19th century, populism and technocracy have continued to work in alignment with these ideals also".
[24] This has presented an ability for populist politics to access audience through the mass networking capabilities of social media which was previously unattainable before the digital age.
[25] Communication and digital media provided by advances in technologies has also given new opportunities for political inclusion for citizens in participating in democratic processes and ultimately the creation of a new public sphere centered on discursive and participatory practices.
[23] In the United States, techno-populism has seen development in the past decade due to a backlash against the neoconservatism and corporatist values presented by a large amount of political parties despite radical changes in economic and social issues.
The populist approach of the Occupy movement made regular reference to its "people" being what it called "the 99%" while they challenged the economic and political "elites of Wall Street".
[citation needed] In Europe, techno-populism is a movement of networked individuals which pursues and enacts citizens of a nation to play a critical role in conferring unity to a leading technocratic and leaderless political organisation".
[30] Presently in Central Europe, the Italian National Alliance and Northern League have held various parliamentary seats by using techno-populist rhetoric to further connect with voters.
It is due to this that Mudd has conferred that when "supranational institutions try to take sanctions based on democratic principles, they are not capable of overcoming national power asymmetries without granting more legitimacy to the populist forces".
[35] It has been argued that "[w]hen the richer classes are looking for leadership change, they often support strongmen, such as military rulers, dedicated to preserving inequality and established elites.
[citation needed] Populist movements in Africa have primarily revolved around the abilities of African governments in solving crises of electricity and water, garbage collection, housing availability and affordable food.
[38] Whilst also embodying the technocracy, the Five Star Movement sought to represent the views of the people through an online voting and debate portal for a direct style of democracy on the internet.
[39] Some critics have since stated that "the setbacks afflicting the M5S show the problems facing unconventional, populist parties that are sprouting up across Europe in evolving from raucous protest movements into mature rulers".
The advent of the Internet and social media has raised the voices of populist causes across the region presently including party systems in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
[8] Prominent examples of techno-populist leaders included Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia ad Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
His policies have a populist message through proposing to redistribute the wealth of Venezuelan to reward allies in other countries in the region such as Bolivian and Ecuador to undermine American influence in Latin America.
[42] Latin American left-wing populism is described by an endeavor to reclassify democracy through advancing positions that are progressively important for "the people" as opposed to different individuals from society.
In New Zealand, "past Prime Minister Robert Muldoon from 1975 to 1984, had been cited as a populist leader who appealed to the common man and utilized a personality-driven campaign in the 1975 election".
