Can reason defeat right-wing populism? Political liberalism and the limits of the duty of pressure

Abstract

Can reason defeat right-wing populism? And what duties do ordinary citizens have when liberal democracy comes under pressure from within? In this commentary, I engage with Gabriele Badano and Alasia Nuti’s Politicizing Political Liberalism , focusing on their account of the ‘duty of pressure’: a moral duty requiring reasonable citizens to engage and seek to persuade supporters of right-wing populist parties through everyday political interactions. I argue that the book makes an important contribution by treating right-wing populism as a central challenge for political liberalism and by locating democratic self-defence not only in the state but also among ordinary citizens. Yet the account remains insufficiently political. While the duty of pressure offers a compelling normative orientation, it overestimates the capacity of reasoned persuasion to counter contemporary right-wing populism. Drawing on scholarship on populism, polarisation and political identification, I argue that right-wing populism is sustained not simply by ‘unreasonable’ beliefs but by affective attachments, social identities, media ecologies and forms of political belonging. I argue that a political liberalism adequate to the challenge of right-wing populism requires a richer sociological account of how citizens are mobilised, sorted and attached to political identities in contemporary democratic life.