Despite their being a policy-based debate coming from both sides the issue, many have labeled former U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage as an anti-pluralist populist that is in the same vein as Trump, and rightfully so. For instance, he has mad the moral distinctions between the true people who voted to leave the EU and everyone else, which was mentioned earlier. Also, Farage has made out-of-hand dismissals of political opponents and their positions, inferring that they are all corrupt. For example, after the Brexit vote, he said that essentially none of the other members of Parliament had ever had a “proper job” in their life (Wolgelenter 2016). This reveals Farage’s view that dissenting voices against him are illegitimate,…show more content… Populism’s Impact: With the rise of populist figures like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, it is important to understand the potential impact of the democratic systems they operate in. In this section, the paper will describe populism’s adverse impact on democracy in terms of its disregard for the democratic process, attack on check and balances, and similarities with technocracy and totalitarianism. Also, it will explore the pitfalls of populism as a tool against increasing oligarchy and reveal it to be a symptom of struggling liberal democracies. Throughout the essay titled “The People Must Be Extracted from Within the People: Reflections on Populism,” Jan‐Werner Müller describes various ways populism acts as an anti-democratic force. One attribute he points to a history of populists having disregard for the democratic process. In the essay, Müller highlights the public protests activated by Orbán in Hungary and Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico following their electoral defeats in 2002 and 2006 respectively (2014). Instead of accepting the result, both stirred their base’s emotions to reject the “corrupt” system and elites that prevented their general will from being implemented. Furthermore, these instances can be seen as an extension of the “true people” mindset where their will and sovereignty must be carried out, even when they lose in the democratic process. As a result, populism’s anti-pluralist and purist features make it a potential threat to democracy on a structural level. Another area Müller examines is populism’s attacks on liberal checks and
