The Socialist-Populist Ideology II

Abstract

This chapter continues the survey—started in Chapter 5—of the political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the socialist-populist ideology from a distinctly socialist perspective. It shall focus on the statesmen (and regimes) who, in spite of their socialist rhetoric, have used the socialist-populist ideology as an instrument of control and coercion and sometimes—as in the case of Guinea’s Sekou Toure—even as an instrument of terror. These political systems are characterized by relatively authoritarian (sometimes totalitarian) regimes, a top-down system of administration, as well as state control over the economy. Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Modibo Keita (Mali), and Julius Nyerere (Tanzania) all fall in this category. It is important to note in this regard that there is a significant difference of degree between these leaders in terms of the authoritarian vs. democratic nature of their regimes. Thus the most autocratic and authoritarian (even totalitarian) tendencies were exhibited by Sekou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah (more pronounced in the former than in the latter), while Modibo Keita and Julius K. Nyerere were somewhat more liberal, open, and democratic in their exercise of power (Nyerere more so than Keita).