WaPo | We live in an era in which globalization is said to be benefiting
elites in countries around the world while leaving behind the masses who
lack the education or skills to compete. And yet, 2013 will be
remembered as the year in which the streets of many a capital were
filled with angry and dispossessed elites.
The crowds who called for revolution in Cairo, Istanbul,
Bangkok and Kiev this year are not the impoverished losers of
globalization. They are, for the most part, the economic winners:
middle-class, educated, secular, English-speaking. They’ve had the
backing of big businessmen who have been enriched by trade, and, as
often as not, the sympathy of the Obama administration and other Western
governments.
So why are they rebelling? Because globalization is not merely an
economic story. It is accompanied by the spread of freer and more
inclusive elections to dozens of countries where they were previously
banned or rigged. That has enabled the rise of populists who cater to
globalization’s losers and who promise to crush the old establishment
and even out the rewards. In country after country, they’ve succeeded in
monopolizing the political system. Hence, the elite revolt.
Hugo
Chávez, elected in Venezuela in 1998, was a pioneer of this trend. He
was followed not just by other Latin American caudillos, but also by
Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Thaksin Shinawatra in Thailand, Viktor Yanukovych
in Ukraine and Mohamed Morsi in Egypt, among others. Yes, these rulers
have many differences. But they have some big things in common: Their
support comes disproportionately from poorer, less-educated and more
rural voters, while their opponents are concentrated in cities,
especially capitals. The populists are also good at winning elections,
but bad at governing — except when it comes to delivering spoils to
their followers.
Most troubling, democracy’s winners all too often
turn out to have little respect for democratic institutions. Like
Chávez, they are prone to rewriting the constitutions they inherit to
concentrate their power. In the name of ousting the old order, they
purge courts and the media and repopulate them with their own followers.
They then subject peaceful opponents to political prosecutions, fill
the airwaves with their propaganda and shut down civil society groups,
especially those with connections to the West.
