Techno-populism
Techno-populism is either a populism in favor of technocracy or a populism concerning certain technology – usually information technology – or any populist ideology conversed using digital media. It can be employed by single politicians or whole political movements respectively. Neighboring terms used in a similar way are technocratic populism, technological populism, and cyber-populism. Italy's Five Star Movement and France's La République En Marche! have been described as technopopulist political movements.
Etymology
The term techno-populism is either a portmanteau of technology and populism to derive a new combined meaning, or a portmanteau using technocracy and populism. It has been noted that broad definitions of techno-populism do not account for regional variants of techno-populism, with the result that "the empirical work on populism is almost invariably confined to specific countries or world regions. This is partly inevitable given the costs and difficulty of cross-national and cross-regional comparisons and often treats the specification of national and regional manifestations of populism as unspecific. This means that populism literature is not as cumulative as it should be, and it is prone to exception fallacy". Technopopulism or technological populism might also have the meaning of application of modern digital technologies for populist means. The latest meaning is similar to cyber-populism.The commonly held definition of technology is "the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry", while the definition of populism that is held by most academics is "a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups". In relation to these two definitions, techno-populism has been described as a "political ideology that appeals to a group of people whom are concerned about their lack of power and interaction with their nations political and economic discourse that is presented through technological knowledge. Techno-populism can be defined as a singular, confusing ideology with various uses in academia, with some academics rejecting the term, and others using it to analyze the growth of populist speech online.
According to De Blasio and Sorice, technopopulism can be defined as the belief that 'government of the people, by the people, for the people' is achievable by means of information communications technology, in a sort of digital update of Lincoln’s formula. The authors identify technopopulism as one of the four main types of populism observable in the contemporary political context, along with neo-liberal, social and national populism. The distinctive characteristics of technopopulism are:
- Horizontal egalitarianism promised through Internet and digital platforms ;
- Direct democracy presented as the ultimate goal, realised via online voting and disintermediation;
- Technolibertarian emphasis on efficiency, privatisation, meritocracy, “newism”, short-termism, and managerialism, and anti-bureaucratic rhetoric;
- Hyper-representation exercised through platforms and technical expertise rather than traditional parties or leaders ;
- Strong anti-political and anti-elite rhetoric that portrays traditional politics and institutions as inefficient, corrupt, and obsolete;
- Technology as ideological framework and “storyline”, producing a convergence or “strange meeting” between the populist myth of direct democracy and the technocratic myth of the “one best way”;
- Rhetorical opposition to “European technocracy” while paradoxically sharing its anti-pluralist traits with technocracy itself: both claim there is only one authentic will of the people or only one correct technical solution, so traditional debate and mediation are unnecessary.
Technocratic populism
Technological populism
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. Technological populism does not separate politics and technology, denies confidence in experts and moves technological decision making into public domain. According to Marco Deseriis, techno-populism in the sense of technological populism is the belief that popular self-government is achievable by means of digital media:Technopopulism is the belief that the "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is achievable by means of information communications technology.... Technopopulism can also be understood in Foucauldian terms as an emerging discourse, that is, as a body of knowledge, norms, attitudes, and practices that arise from the hybridization of two preexisting discourses: populism and technolibertarianism. Even though these discursive practices are historically separate, I contend that they have begun to converge after the 2008 financial crisis as widespread frustration at the ruling elites' mishandling of the crisis sparked international protest movements, and propelled a new generation of "technoparties" such as the Five Star Movement in Italy, Podemos in Spain, and the Pirate Party in Iceland.
Some sources use the word cyber-populism as synonym for technological populism concerning with application of information technology for government and even identify two varieties of it: techno-plebiscitarianism as seen in the tendency to upset the principle of pluralism", and techno-proceduralism as seen in the obsession with methods and the comparative neglect of substantive demands beyond the mere demand of democracy 2.0''.''
History
The combination of populism and technology to form techno-populism is a recent phenomenon to world economics and politics and has seen its developments from the end of the 20th century up to recent years. According to Daniele Caramani, "populism has been present in political processes since Plato's conception of politics and the Roman republic to the modern era. 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".With the advent of the internet and its common use in the 21st century, techno-populist movements have been particularly been enabled to the spread of social media as independent coverage of populist movements can be shared quickly and seen by millions. 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. 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.
Both populism and democracy are today widespread in different parts of the world, but due to developments in technology such as the Internet populist movements have all simultaneously developed some presence over communication on the internet despite differing issues in regional contexts. Techno-populism is growing among all regions in the world, but that it has as much to do with the adoption of the internet over the past two decades as it does in the spread of populist ideologies. Daniele Caramani argues that "Techno-Populist mobilization is not restricted to regional areas but can be promoted on certain topics, which either intentionally or unintentionally are not being addressed by the establishment".
Technocratic and technological populisms by region
North America
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. In particular, the 2008 financial crisis led to a growth of resentment against the 1% by the 99%. In response to the Great Recession, movements were formed to bring awareness to the growing economic issues and the Occupy movement and the Tea Party movement were both techno-populist movements that were protested for change. 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".In Canada, only the Reform Party qualifies as a populist party whose initial and sustaining appeal was to "the people" as against "the elite". That the identities of both the people and the elite in Reform Party discourse were strikingly at odds with those understood in much of North American populist history and appeal has been vital to the Reform Party distinctive role in Canadian politics. As it was dissolved in 2000, it did not use aspects of digital communication to further its political movement. A recent example of a techno-populist movement that has arisen over backlash from videos and reports spread on social media is the yellow vest protests in Canada. Various aspects of populist movements have continued to be present in both Canada's government and social movements in the past decade and the role of technology in connecting people to these causes has had a role in developing this trend.