Human Rights and Populism

The recent rise of populist political forces has challenged the universalist human rights project. Ford explores how scholars have framed and responded to this challenge, offering a provocation to the human rights movement. The book asks how we can reimagine human rights as underpinning human flourishing and important constraints on public and private concentrations of power in a post-truth 'fake news' world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

For decades, framing an issue as a 'human rights issue' carried a certain power and effect in politics and international relations, one that has been challenged by the recent rise of populist political forces. Ford explores the recent impact of populist politics on the universalist human rights project, in particular, how scholars have framed and responded to this challenge. Ford offers a provocation to the human rights movement. Rather than 'what have populists done to human rights?', it asks 'how did we, the human rights movement, do this to ourselves? How did fundamental protections for all become so easily scapegoated as 'us and them, as claims of small, often foreign, minorities? Did human rights lose some vital connection to ordinary peoples interests, their value taken as obvious and self-explanatory? Looking forward, the book asks how – in a post-truth 'fake news world – we might reimagine human rights as underpinning human flourishing as well as important constraints on public and private concentrations of power. Traversing relevant scholarly literature on the future of human rights and zooming out to look at wider patterns of political and diplomatic discourse, this book will speak to policymakers, diplomats, journalists, and human rights advocates – and all interested in the crisis of liberal democracies.

Weight: 285g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032317540