From global shifts to domestic ruptures: populism and the crisis in Western democracies

This article examines the differentiated rise of populism in the core and periphery of Western democracies as a political response to global structural change. It argues that contemporary populism cannot be understood solely as a domestic or regional backlash, but rather as the product of a wider transformation in the world economy, marked by Western relative decline and growing perceived scarcity within it. Through a differentiated civilizational perspective, the study allows us to shed light on a blind spot in the large body of democratic studies, where the expansion or reversion of democracy often begins from the core and moves to the periphery. This article explains the process from the opposite perspective, this being its contribution, showing how the current populist reversal of democracy is better understood from the periphery, as these societies are more familiar with the scarcity now also perceived in the center. It shows how these global trends reshape political identities, weaken the rule of law, and erode the representative institutions that once sustained liberal democracy. The analysis traces how economic slowdown, geopolitical displacement, and identity-based grievances produce exclusionary narratives and charismatic leadership, expressed as left-wing populism in the periphery and right-wing populism in the core.