A democratic country lives by a culture of liberty and tolerance

 
An electoral democracy describes a democratic government based on a system that enables all citizens to select one candidate from a list of competitors for political office. The process is called an election. Each citizen becomes a voter who casts a secret ballot with their choices. In order for the election to qualify for democratic integrity, the process must be free and fair without any coercion or bribery tactics and independent of the incumbents. However, a liberal democracy describes a democratic government with individual freedoms protected by constitutional rights and liberties along with collective rights and liberties all enforced by the rules of law. The society must live by a culture of freedom and liberty whatever have been the results of the elections.

Electoral democracy has been instrumentalized by populists to undermine liberal democracies across the world. It is a fact that electoral success establishes the democratic credentials of populist regimes. Populism’s reliance on electoral legitimacy prevents it from sliding into open authoritarianism: canceling electoral contexts or refusing to accept a negative electoral result will run contrary from what constitutes its main democratic validity claim.

Modern populism represents a direct response to the second democratizing wave that the defeat of European fascism inaugurated.  Its place of birth is Argentina, with Peronism representing the first incarnation of the modern democratic expression of populism. Juan Domingo Peron, a prominent political leader of a pro-fascist military dictatorship, was the first to realize the limitations that the post-war environment posed to openly dictatorial projects and set out to establish a populist democratic regime.

Electoral legitimization is consequently crucial for modern forms of populism. Elections, however, are interpreted in a different manner than under liberal democracy. They are not merely viewed as a procedure to appoint a government; rather, they serve as confirmation of a previous fact that a specific personality embodies the people. Elections serve to ratify such conviction: this is why electoral contests under populism are frequently framed as an existential struggle between the people and its foes and electoral victories interpreted as a momentous occasion that confirms the authority of the leader.

Modern populism draws its legitimization from the principle of popular sovereignty, yet democracy is interpreted in an illiberal way. Under populism, elections serve the principle of identification, and not of representation. Alongside with referendums, mass mobilizations, acts of public acclamation, mass and social media, they are viewed as the channels that make such a process of identification possible. The mediating structures of representative democracy are instead seen as a nuance that prevents populist identification to take place.