Abstract
Populist politics has historically been weak in the UK compared with other democracies. Social conservatism and moral authoritarianism have waxed and waned in popularity but rarely turned into a significant political force. Resentment at immigration is the long-standing exception, the only issue in modern times with the consistent capacity to disrupt the electoral basis of the party system. The impact of populist movements and politicians exploiting the immigration issue depends more on the existence of intermediary institutions that blunt the exposure of political elites to the ‘people’, and vice versa, than on the strength of public opinion; these intermediary institutions have been eroded in recent years. Populism in the UK would shrivel if the immigration issue was resolved; liberals have a responsibility to re-design a progressive policy that addresses the causes of popular hostility at major surges of immigration in order to defend the principles and achievements of liberal democracy.
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Notes
- 1.
In Uxbridge (8% of the vote) in December 1972 and West Bromwich (16%) in May 1973.
- 2.
Nuclear weapons, the poll tax and the invasion of Iraq might be cited as other examples. But CND—the movement for unilateral nuclear disarmament—was engaged in converting the Labour party, and the poll tax riots were a popular revolt against a particular government policy. Only opposition to the invasion of Iraq included a sense of betrayal by the political class, for misleading the public about Iraq’s capacity to deploy weapons of mass destruction.
- 3.
Europe, because Canada and Australia are exceptions.
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Crewe, I. (2020). Authoritarian Populism and Brexit in the UK in Historical Perspective. In: Crewe, I., Sanders, D. (eds) Authoritarian Populism and Liberal Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17997-7_2
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