There is a tendency in public debate to downplay the significance of populism by attributing
its rise to the inadequacies of those who vote for populist leaders and parties. But this way
of thinking prevents us from seeing that the rise of populism may be linked to problems and
shortcomings in the way our democracies work. In this important book Armin Schäfer and Michael
Zürn argue that the rise of authoritarian populism is rooted in two developments that are
specifically political in character: first the takeover of parliaments by high-earning highly
educated personnel and second the growing political role of non-majoritarian institutions
like central banks and international institutions that remove decisions from public debate and
entrust them to experts. Contemporary democracy is increasingly perceived as lacking openness
and representativeness. More and more citizens come to feel that politics is made by a closed
political class oblivious to the concerns of ordinary people and those who share this view are
more likely to vote for authoritarian populists. Although contemporary populists keep rubbing
salt into the wound of liberal democracy their responses fail to solve the problems of
democratic politics. On the contrary wherever authoritarian-populist parties have come to
power they have damaged democracy rather than expanding it or reducing existing inequalities.
