Farage, the Quintessential National Populist

Nigel Farage is the quintessential national populist. Together with Donald Trump, he symbolizes the rise to prominence (in his case, not yet to power) of manipulators and demagogues who exploit the institutions of democracy while subverting them through corruption, deception, and contempt for the rule of law.

His announcement that he was resigning as a Member of Parliament following corruption allegations, while simultaneously forcing a by-election in which he intends to run again, was a masterclass in populism. It was framed as a "people versus the establishment" by-election. All the classic elements were there:

-Victimhood. Farage portrayed himself as a victim of the establishment, just as other national populists present themselves as targets of shadowy elites and conspiracies. This narrative grants populists, in their own eyes, the right to use unconstrained means in order to strike back.

-The people versus the elite. Claiming to stand with "the people" against a supposedly self-serving political elite is the defining feature of populism. In the United States, Donald Trump has used this strategy with remarkable success. Political power resulting from this (despite his obvious belonging to a narrow oligarchy) has enabled him to remain free despite facing multiple criminal charges.

-The people as judges instead of independent institutions. According to the populist logic embraced by Farage, corruption allegations should not ultimately be settled by courts of law but by the voters of his constituency. Popular support is presented as a substitute for legal accountability.

-Plebiscitary politics. The by-election is transformed into a plebiscite, blurring the distinction between elections and referendums. Politics becomes Manichaean, reduced to a false choice between apparently simple alternatives that erase complexity, compromise, and pluralism. Populists—such as Marine Le Pen in France—seek to sidestep legal institutions, and thus the rule of law itself, by appealing directly to voters.

Corruption and racism have enabled Farage, like Trump, to ride two successive waves of populism: first, the relatively moderate (by today's standards) wave of Brexit and Trump 1.0; and second, the current wave of democratic backsliding and open xenophobia. Both illustrate the vicious circle of populism. The first populist wave leaves behind such profound economic, social, and institutional damage that, even when the opposition returns to power, it struggles to repair the inherited problems. This, in turn, creates fertile ground for populists to exploit a second wave of public discontent.

For once, however, this episode has shown what the appropriate democratic response might look like: a tacit display of unity among the major political parties—including Labour and the Conservatives—by refusing to contest the by-election that Farage engineered, leaving him to face only fringe candidates. Rather than legitimizing his attempt to turn the contest into a plebiscite, they declined to play the role assigned to them in his populist script.