{"id":1007680,"date":"2023-03-30T11:59:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T11:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/?p=1007680"},"modified":"2023-03-31T12:04:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T12:04:05","slug":"populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/en\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Populism and Welfare Chauvinism in Africa. A glance at Lesotho\u2019s 2022 Electoral Process"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Maria Izabel Braga Weber<\/div>\n

2023-3-30<\/em><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This article is part of the UNPOP series – Unpacking Populism, published on a monthly basis and\u00a0<\/sub><\/em>edited by Cristiano Gianolla and Ma\u00edra Magalh\u00e3es Lopes.<\/sub><\/em><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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On October 10th, 2022, the Revolution for Prosperity Party (RFP) won the most seats in the Lesotho\u2019s Kingdom Parliament, 57. The party\u2019s philosophy is presented as \u201csocial liberalism\u201d, and its\u00a0motto<\/u><\/a>\u00a0is \u201cthe economy is life\u201d. Considered populist, as conveyed in various\u00a0media<\/u><\/a>, it was able to achieve the highest simple majority of Parliament seats since 2007.<\/p>\n

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IMAGE RFP Creator-SIPHIWE SIBEKO. Credit-REUTERS. Copyright-SIPHIWE SIBEKO<\/sup><\/p>\n

With self-made businessman Sam Matekane as its main leader, who had already gained fame and wealth from his skill as a transport and diamond mining entrepreneur, the Party was created in March 2022. Then, its leader was seen as almost a hero due to his philanthropic position during the pandemic \u2013 \u201ctogether\u2026 we had to try to save the nation\u201d, as he\u00a0explained<\/u><\/a>\u00a0shortly afterwards: \u201cIf this nation dies from this pandemic, we won\u2019t have any consumers tomorrow\u201d \u2013 thoughts well in line with his Party\u2019s future motto.<\/p>\n

To what extend are Lesotho\u2019s parties characterized as \u201cpopulist\u201d? Is it possible to analyze them within the same conceptual framework used for current European cases? What political, economic, and social conditions have influenced the political and electoral behavior of Lesotho\u2019s citizens? Are these cases structurally or symbolically different from current European ones? Based on a minimalist conceptualization of populist phenomenon proposed by\u00a0Mudde and Kaltwasser<\/u><\/a>, Lesotho\u2019s case seems to differ from common local and regional characteristics, whilst simultaneously absorbing certain populist patterns from the Global North.<\/p>\n

Historically, populism\u2019s emergence was linked to movements and parties that aimed at the extension of rights. On one hand, for Latin America and other regions from the world’s periphery, as\u00a0Dussel<\/u><\/a>\u00a0reminds us, it represented a successful form of struggle against an identified hegemonic power in the 20th Century. On the other hand,\u00a0Mudde and Kaltwasser<\/u><\/a>\u00a0argue that populism \u201calways entails both exclusionary and inclusive features\u201d and \u201crevisiting\u201d the concept to allow for its comparability, they analyze \u201cthree dimensions of inclusion\/exclusion: material, symbolic and political\u201d. In this article, only the material dimension is analyzed.<\/p>\n

As the authors explain, both inclusionary and exclusionary approaches regarding the material dimension vary in state policies around resource distribution of both monetary and non-monetary goods (such as jobs, public services, and so on), based on ideologies of economic egalitarianism or economic self-interest. Whilst inclusionary approaches will try to envelop some of the historical context of marginalization under an economic ideology, exclusionary ones will maintain or grant those resources for a specific group, restricting welfare policies, through\u00a0welfare chauvinism<\/u><\/a>\u00a0strategies, guided by economic self-interest, as Mudde and Kaltwasser identified in most of the far-right populism cases they analyzed.<\/p>\n

The Lesotho populist case reveals a common root of welfare chauvinism, despite differences between most Global North welfare states, where predominantly urban areas and high industrialization define it polices, and those more\u00a0assistance ones<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that emerged in Africa. Furthermore, this case seems to contradict the main variant of populism in Africa that, as\u00a0Nyenhuis and Jager<\/u><\/a>\u00a0point out, tends to be Marxist-Socialist in ideological orientation, stressing sociopolitical inclusivity and largely deriving electoral support from co-ethnic and urban constituencies.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding, for\u00a0Resnick<\/u><\/a>, ideological orientation was most common during \u201ca first generation of African populism\u201d. In contemporary cases, as elsewhere, \u201cthere is not a clear delineation of populist economic interventions\u201d and ideological discourses must be observed in association with political strategies and social-political performances in \u201ca cumulative conceptual approach\u201d. However, where her approach contributes to the identification of a variety of populisms in Africa, it does not address welfare chauvinism.<\/p>\n

The exclusionary populist messages found in the RFP\u2019s rhetoric of \u201csocial liberalism\u201d nevertheless reveal that there is welfare chauvinism in Africa and its common root is the exclusionary nature of policies, practices, and discourses under neoliberalism. This rhetoric is used in different contexts as an instrument of selection, exclusion, exploitation, and stigmatization, beyond immigrant-based racism. In this sense, welfare chauvinism undermines both social rights under capitalism and any possibility of solidarity among the working class. Thus, regardless of contexts, welfare chauvinism pits workers against each other: national\/immigrant, rural\/urban, formal\/precarious, employed\/unemployed, male\/female, old\/young.<\/p>\n

For instance, over the past 20 years, Lesotho became the\u00a0highest spender<\/u><\/a>\u00a0amongst any African countries, with social protection spending representing about 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP), especially related to women, children and disabled beneficiaries, the most vulnerable social groups. Following this disposition, the new RFP leader did not deny this situation directly, but rather, signaled their intention to reform all assistance financial structures to be \u201cmore efficient\u201d and \u201cless corrupted\u201d \u2013 \u201cI promise that I will spearhead the process to right our country\u2019s historical wrongs and make Lesotho\u00a0great again<\/u><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although welfare state policies have progressively improved income and wealth distribution since the beginning of this century, Lesotho\u00a0\u201cis still one of the top 20% most\u00a0unequal<\/u><\/a>\u00a0countries in the world\u201d<\/em>, and despite improvements on reducing inequality,\u00a0\u201cPoverty remains highly concentrated in rural areas where four out of five of poor citizens live<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0Gender inequality<\/u><\/a>\u00a0has not changed during the last two decades;\u00a0women\u2019s poverty<\/u><\/a>\u00a0has grown slightly and reports on\u00a0institutional<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0gender-based\u00a0<\/u><\/a>violence indicate that 86% of women experience violence during their lifetimes. When economic and political improvements do not change social injustice contexts, it is correlated to\u00a0structural violence<\/u><\/a>, which reflects back on \u201cunequal life chances<\/u><\/a>\u201d. In fact, Lesotho has one of the\u00a0highest rates<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of violent death,\u00a0rape<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and sexual violence in the world, and gender based violence has been identified as the main contributor to the\u00a0high female HIV rate<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and its lack of prevention.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Bambra<\/u><\/a>, \u201cis now widely acknowledged that welfare states are important determinants of health\u2026\u201d, besides, \u201cwomen\u2019s health is more sensitive to public welfare\u201d. In this regard, despite literature on welfare chauvinism in Africa being scarce, its emergence features in\u00a0Nhengu\u2019s<\/u><\/a>\u00a0work on Basotho women\u2019s health, which highlights the multiple resulting vulnerabilities of female migrants.<\/p>\n

In this sense, besides Lesotho women being a core economically and socially vulnerable group, they also represent the\u00a0majority of voters<\/u><\/a>. However, in its political strategies, the RFP\u2019s\u00a0Manifesto<\/u><\/a>\u00a0targets an urban, young, unemployed population, but does not address women\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

How then, do you explain the paradoxical support of more socioeconomically vulnerable groups, who benefit more from welfare states\u2019 policies to those exclusionary populist political actors? Traditional structures of self-interest and ideology do not seem enough. In this sense, it is necessary to reveal the performative character of some emotions, such as shame, experienced by these vulnerable groups, a bewildering process of self-recognition, as well as a social and collective one.<\/p>\n

In general, daily migrating Basotho women from the enclaved Kingdom of Lesotho (that is surrounded by South Africa), might have their interests neglected by the patriarchal culture in their country, but in South Africa they are the perfect target of welfare chauvinism. Preeminently hiring for informal and lower standard jobs, they have their existence denied every day. Dispossessed from any right, will or result of their own production, they return home with nothing \u2013 \u201cPoor women<\/u><\/a>\u00a0in Lesotho endure a triple jeopardy of exploitation by patriarchy, capitalism, and the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the African philosophical tradition, especially Basotho, without awareness of the\u00a0Unity of Being<\/u><\/a>, there can be no thought, feeling, nor action. This communality came from its\u00a0cosmological<\/u><\/a>\u00a0vision and is timeless and interconnected with the earth and the body. In this sense, if\u00a0Mosotho is the individual, Basotho, its plural<\/u><\/a>, pervades the reduced borders, delimited in the colonial period, and carries on its symbolic content to the formation of collective identity.<\/p>\n

Relational status, family and motherhood<\/u><\/a>\u00a0are significant parts of the ontological elaboration of individual\/collective identity and influence all relational processes of meaning and understanding of\u00a0prosperity<\/u><\/a>. In this context, the\u00a0political myth<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of the winning candidate as a successful self-made businessman, as reinforced by the Mosotho concept used in the \u201cManifesto<\/u><\/a>\u201d, denies Basotho women their contribution to collective formation. In doing so, shame arises as they can be blamed for the country\u2019s\u00a0poverty<\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 prosperity is attached to the modernity myth and Basotho’s culture to its hindrance.<\/p>\n

Shame is an affective cognitive construct based on a negative self-judgment, or, from an external perspective, on a negative perception of oneself, based on other’s judgment perception. Accordingly, to the\u00a0Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology<\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u201cshame can motivate a powerless group\u201d through its flipside,\u00a0pride<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, the welfare chauvinism observed in Lesotho\u2019s populism case, occurs both directly and indirectly. Directly, for instance, in promising to reinforce security and\u00a0redirecting<\/u><\/a>\u00a0gender assistance support to improve public institutions aiming to prevent violence against \u201cMosotho\u201d women. And indirectly, by nominating a female finance minister who presents an economic strategy that is not \u201cfully pro-poor<\/u><\/a>\u201d, and seems to maintain the\u00a0status quo<\/u><\/a>\u00a0via a lack of action, law or policy that could reduce inequalities that affect Basotho women\u2019s poor health conditions. In the same way, covering up women\u2019s unjust situation, instrumentalizing their\u00a0shame<\/u><\/a>\u00a0over a feeling of national pride: \u201cseeks to address the state of Lesotho and to reclaim our pride and glory as a\u00a0blessed \u2018Nation\u2019<\/u><\/a>\u00a0among nations\u201d.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Maria Izabel Braga Weber<\/u><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a PhD student in Sociology and Political Science in the Joint PhD Program (Democracy in the 21st Century) between the Center for Social Studies (CES) and the Faculty of Economics (FEUC), University of Coimbra, and also a Junior Research at Unpop Project.<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Source:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Alice News<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Maria Izabel Braga Weber 2023-3-30 This article is part of the UNPOP series - Unpacking Populism, published on a monthly basis and\u00a0edited by Cristiano Gianolla and Ma\u00edra Magalh\u00e3es Lopes....","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1007682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[47],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPopulism and Welfare Chauvinism in Africa. A glance at Lesotho\u2019s 2022 Electoral Process - UNPOP - UNpacking POPulism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On October 10th, 2022, the Revolution for Prosperity Party (RFP) won the most seats in the Lesotho\u2019s Kingdom Parliament, 57. 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A glance at Lesotho\u2019s 2022 Electoral Process","datePublished":"2023-03-30T11:59:55+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-31T12:04:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/"},"wordCount":2075,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Dissemina\u00e7\u00e3o"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/","url":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/","name":"Populism and Welfare Chauvinism in Africa. A glance at Lesotho\u2019s 2022 Electoral Process - UNPOP - UNpacking POPulism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-03-30T11:59:55+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-31T12:04:05+00:00","description":"On October 10th, 2022, the Revolution for Prosperity Party (RFP) won the most seats in the Lesotho\u2019s Kingdom Parliament, 57. The party\u2019s philosophy is presented as \u201csocial liberalism\u201d, and its motto is \u201cthe economy is life\u201d. Considered populist, as conveyed in various media, it was able to achieve the highest simple majority of Parliament seats since 2007.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/populism-and-welfare-chauvinism-in-africa-a-glance-at-lesothos-2022-electoral-process\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/unpop.ces.uc.pt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Populism and Welfare Chauvinism in Africa. 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