The concept of democracy in the context of populist theory and its impact on the paths of democratizing regimes

Abstract

The research discusses contemporary populism and its theory of democracy, which provides solutions to overcome the fallacies that afflicted the democratic project, rebuild it, and review its foundations, especially in its representative aspect, as it is considered one of the ambiguous procedures that must be overcome or strengthened because it has caused an inability to represent the entire people and express their will not to The elected people fulfill their promises and ignore their voters after they gain power. The populist theory suggests that the solution lies in adopting a democracy called polarized direct democracy, in which individuals initiate legislation and rule through referendum as the only means that enables the people to rule immediately without waiting for the term of the elected people to run out to punish them, as it seeks That democracy, in its social dimension, aims to undermine the personalization of power and change the concept of the people after establishing a form of governance that excludes intermediary bodies between the people and power, and this explains the extremely negative vision of the populist theory of parliaments, parties, the press, and constitutional courts.