Populism vs Institutionalism
A Losing Battle Without A Movement
Countering authoritarian populism with institutionalism alone is a losing battle. Institutions—governments, courts, media, regulatory agencies—are essential to a functioning democracy, but when authoritarian populists attack institutions, those institutions often fail to defend themselves. Why? Because institutionalism relies on legitimacy, proceduralism, and norms—and authoritarian populists thrive by breaking those norms and making the institutions they attack look weak and ineffective.
This is why responding with institutional defenses alone—trusting the courts, waiting for elections, depending on the rule of law—is inadequate and even dangerous. It assumes a playing field that no longer exists. It assumes that institutions will hold, that the public will be satisfied with procedural checks, and that elections alone can stop the authoritarian drift. But when the institutions themselves are captured, paralyzed, or discredited, the battle cannot be won on their terms.
The Problem With an Institutional Response
Institutions Move Too Slowly
The authoritarian populist strategy is to overwhelm the system with chaos, corruption, and crises faster than institutions can respond.
Example: Trump’s legal battles show that the courts move too slowly to check authoritarian power in real time.
What Happens? People lose faith in institutions that seem powerless to stop the destruction.
Institutionalism Is Elitist
Institutional defenses assume that expertise, precedent, and rationality will prevail, but populism feeds on resentment toward elites and institutions.
Example: The Supreme Court’s declining legitimacy isn’t just because of Trump’s appointees; it’s because people no longer see the judiciary as representing them.
What Happens? Authoritarians use institutional failure to further radicalize the public.
The Right Has Already Captured Many Institutions
Courts, state governments, law enforcement, corporate media, and even some parts of civil service have already been infiltrated or compromised.
Example: The Trump-packed Supreme Court is undoing rights that were long considered settled law (abortion, affirmative action, voting rights).
What Happens? If institutions are already rigged, depending on them is just waiting to lose.
Democracy Can’t Be Saved Through Defense Alone
Playing defense is losing. When we are always reacting—filing lawsuits, responding to new restrictions, trying to restore rights that have been stripped away—we are fighting on the authoritarian’s terms.
Example: The Democratic Party’s reactive messaging fails because it doesn’t offer a vision beyond “we’re not Trump.”
What Happens? People disengage because opposition without an alternative is not inspiring.
So What Should We Do Instead?
To defeat authoritarian populism, we must fight it on its own terrain—with mass movements, cultural power, and a bold, populist, democratic vision. That means:
Build a Counter-Populism That Fights for Real Democracy
Right-wing populism mobilizes people around fear and grievance—we need a pro-democracy populism that mobilizes people around hope and power.
Frame the Fight as the People vs. the Corrupt Elite—but make the billionaire class, corporations, and authoritarians the enemy, not marginalized groups.
Call for Structural Change—Don’t just defend broken institutions; demand transformation (abolish the Electoral College, democratize the courts, expand labor rights, etc.).
Mass Organizing Must Be the Center of the Strategy
Movements win, not just politicians.
Instead of waiting for politicians to “fix it,” we need grassroots organizations, worker movements, tenant unions, student coalitions, and mutual aid networks that build real power outside traditional institutions.
Example: The Civil Rights Movement didn’t wait for courts or Congress to act—it forced the issue with direct action, strikes, and mass mobilization.
Seize the Narrative: Authoritarians Fear a United People
Expose the right’s billionaire populism—they are weaponizing economic pain to consolidate power.
Example: Musk and Trump aren’t draining the swamp—they’re looting the country.
Use the Language of Freedom—Freedom from poverty, fear, corporate control, state violence, and economic precarity.
Escalate Direct Action and Mass Mobilization
Mass Strikes—Labor must be central to the fight, from service workers to tech workers.
Consumer Resistance—Boycotts, divestment, and economic disruption hit the elites where it hurts.
Physical Presence in the Streets—Strategic nonviolent action that makes the cost of authoritarianism unbearable.
Example: The Philippines’ People Power Revolution in 1986 toppled Marcos through mass action.
Disrupt Their Playbook: Force Crisis on Our Terms
The right manufactures crises to justify power grabs—we must create crisis moments that force accountability.
Example: The Vietnam War didn’t end just because of elections—it ended because students, workers, and activists made the war ungovernable.
How? Disrupt their operations, force corporate and political actors to choose sides, and create unavoidable moral dilemmas.
The Takeaway: We Need a Democratic Movement, Not Just a Pro-Democracy Party
Institutionalism won’t save us. The courts, elections, and legislative maneuvering have never been the sole protectors of democracy. Democracy is only won and defended when people mobilize at scale to make injustice impossible to ignore.
Authoritarian populism thrives on institutional failure. That’s why we can’t just play defense, can’t just sue, can’t just vote, and can’t just “trust the process.” We must mobilize outside the system, force crisis moments, and create a vision of democracy that actually inspires people.
By "crisis moments," I mean turning points created by movements that force the public, the media, and those in power to confront injustice in a way that can’t be ignored, delayed, or managed away through institutional processes. Authoritarians manufacture crises to consolidate power; we must create turning points at which to expose injustice and force democratic breakthroughs.
These moments shift the political landscape, disrupt the status quo, and create urgency for action. They are not random chaos, but strategically planned and executed so that doing nothing becomes more costly for those in power than addressing the demands of the movement.
If we wait for institutions to save us, we will lose.
If we build power and force democracy to happen, we will win.