A problem with populism

 My interest in Mexican newspapers led me to the work of a California scholar: Professor Kathleen Bruhn, an expert on democratization. She has written about how democracies in Latin America have been strengthened and undermined.

I got interested in her work because I love Mexico, a wonderful place with a problem with populism. Populism divides a society into two groups: the pure people v. the corrupt elite.

Mexico’s former president, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, was the kind of guy who would ignore court orders on the grounds that they violated the will of the people.

He was also an election denier — but only when he lost. He lost four times.

You are perhaps beginning to see parallels with the alleged leadership in the United States, which claims to be exceptional and disparages the kinds of things that go on in “banana republics.”

Professor Bruhn’s study of Mexico and other Latin American countries shows a pattern: Populist autocrats erode democracies. In her account, the movement from democracy to autocracy follows a formula.

• Once in power, the autocrat seeks to capture the state by controlling its institutions. He attacks the courts, law enforcement agencies, the military, oversight agencies (especially those that oversee elections) and public media.

• The autocrat attacks all opponents, driving them from power. He then seeks to gain more control of the state, gaining control over courts that hadn’t previously caved in.

• The autocrat seeks to polarize the divide between the true believers and opponents. By keeping up the constant theme that opponents — meaning people who disagree — are enemies of the state, the autocrat can justify infringing on their civil rights. He uses state institutions to persecute them. He eventually stops counting their votes.

I discovered the work of Professor Bruhn by reading the obituaries of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, who showed that this process works both ways. Democracies can be strengthened as well as weakened. Cárdenas was known for undermining the idea of one-party rule in Mexico.