From Economic Crisis to Democratic Backsliding: Evidence from Thailand, Argentina, the United States, and Greece
Akis Kalaitzidis
Economic crises often serve as incubators of populism. When currencies collapse, or debts spiral out of control, mainstream parties lose credibility, creating openings for leaders who claim to defend “the people” against distant elites. The cases of Thailand, Argentina, the United States, and Greece illustrate how crises enable populism, how populists frame economic struggles, and use them to subvert the political order. In Thailand, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis led to IMF-imposed reforms that hurt the rural poor. Thaksin Shinawatra rose on a populist platform of cheap healthcare and rural development, casting himself as defender of the countryside against Bangkok elites (Phongpaichit & Baker, 2009). In Argentina, the 2001–2002 default discredited neoliberal economic policies. Néstor and Cristina Kirchner mobilized popular anger against the IMF and creditors, mixing subsidies and protectionism with nationalist rhetoric (Levitsky & Murillo, 2008). In the United States, the 2008 financial crash produced dual populist currents: the Tea Party and Donald Trump on the right, and Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders on the left, both targeting elites, including Wall Street and the Washington establishment (Skocpol & Williamson, 2012; Frank, 2016). In Greece, Syriza rose during the Eurozone crisis, opposing austerity and demanding sovereignty from the EU “Troika” (Pappas, 2019). Across these cases, populists reframed abstract economic shocks as moral struggles, pitting ordinary people against elites, technocrats, or foreign powers (Mudde & Rovira Kaltwasser, 2017). Their policies emphasized immediate relief—subsidies, redistribution, debt resistance—over fiscal orthodoxy. Yet each also confronted the hard limits of global capitalism, leading to compromise, backlash, or renewed instability (Dornbusch & Edwards, 1991; Kahler & Lake, 2013). Economic crises highlight the tension between national democracy and global markets; populism thrives in this gap, using it to decay institutions and norms in democratic states. I argue that economic crises lead to democratic backsliding.
Keywords:Populism, Economic Crises, Democratic backsliding, Greece, USA, Thailand, Argentina
References
Alabarces, Pablo. Soccer and the Return of Argentine Politics. Report on Sport and Society 37, no. 5 (March/April 2004).
AP Fact Check: “Trump’s Birther Claims.” Associated Press. September 26, 2016. https://apnews.com/events-united-states-presidential-election-bc9e054698e644e8bc5c05e7f9812291
Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan (2022). The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021. NY: Doubleday
Bermeo, Nancy. (2016). “On Democratic Backsliding” Journal of Democracy, Vol 27, Number 1, pp. 5-19.
Bernanke, Ben. (2012). “The Economic Recovery and Economic Policy.” Speech, November 20, 2012. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20121120a.htm.
Bluestein, Paul. (2005). And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out). New York: Public Affairs, 2005.
Bunce, Valerie & Wolchik, Sharon. (2011). Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Post-Communist Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brinks, Daniel; Leiras, Marcelo and Mainwaring, Scott. (eds.) (2014). Reflections on Uneven Democracies: The Legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chachavalpongpun, Pavin, (ed.) (2020). Coup, King, Crisis: A Critical Interregnum in Thailand. New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies.
———, (ed.) (2020). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Connors, Michael & Pathmanand (eds.). (2021). Thai Politics in Translation: Monarchy, Democracy and the Supra-Constitution. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Davies, William. (2025). “Repeal the 20th Century.” London Review of Books 47, no. 17.
Dendrinou, Victoria and Varvitsioti, Eleni (2019). The Last Bluff: How Greece Came Face to Face with Financial Catastrophe and the Secret Plan for Its Euro Exit. Athens: Papadopoulos Publishing.
De la Torre, Carlos. (2018). Populisms: A Quick Immersion. Lexington, KY: Quick Immersions.
Desai, Padma. (2003). Financial Crisis, Contagion and Containment: From Asia to Argentina. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Diamond, Larry; Plattner, Marc and Brun, Diego Abente (eds.) (2008). Latin America’s Struggle for Democracy.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dornbusch, Rüdiger and Edwards, Sebastian. (1991) “The Macroeconomics of Populism.” In: The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America, edited by Rüdiger Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards, 7–13. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Faulder, Dominic. (2018). Anand Panyarachun and the Making of Modern Thailand. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet.
Ferrara, Federico. (2015). The Political Development of Modern Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foa, Roberto Stefan and Mounk, Yascha. (2017). “The Signs of Deconsolidation.” Journal of Democracy, 28, no.1: 5-65.
Frank, Thomas. (2016). Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? New York: Metropolitan Books.
Gibson, James and Sutherland, Joseph. (2023). “Keeping Your Mouth Shut: Spiraling Self-Censorship in the United States.” Political Science Quarterly 138, no. 3: 361–76.
Goodwin, Lawrence. (1978). The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gurr, Ted. (1970). Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hayward, Jack (ed.) (1996). Elitism, Populism, and European Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hedges, Jill. (2015) Argentina: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris.
Hofstadter, Richard. (1962). Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. New York: Vintage.
———. (2008). The Paranoid Style in American Politics. New York: Vintage.
Judis, John. (2016). The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics.New York: Columbia Global Reports.
International Monetary Fund. (2009). World Economic Outlook, April 2009: Crisis and Recovery. Washington, DC: IMF.
Kahler, Miles and Lake, David A. (2013). Politics in the New Hard Times: The Great Recession in Comparative Perspective. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kalyvas, Stathis. (2015). Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Labrianidis, Lois and Pratsinakis, Manolis. (2017). “Crisis Brain Drain: Short-Term Pain/Long-Term Gain?” In: Greece in Crisis: The Cultural Politics of Austerity, edited by Dimitris Tziovas, 215–36. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
Levitsky, Steven and Roberts, Kenneth. (2011). “Latin America’s ‘Left Turn’: A Framework of Analysis.” In: The Resurgence of the Latin American Left, edited by Steven Levitsky and Kenneth Roberts, 1–28. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Levitsky, Steven and Murillo, María Victoria. (2008). “Argentina: From Kirchner to Kirchner.” Journal of Democracy 19, no. 2: 16–30.
———, (eds.) (2005). Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Levitsky, Steven. (2005). “Crisis and Renovation: Institutional Weakness and the Transformation of Argentine Peronism, 1983–2003.” In: Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness, edited by Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo, 193–216. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
MercoPress. (2025). “CFK Lambasts Milei for Deal with IMF.” March 10, 2025. https://en.mercopress.com/2025/03/10/cfk-lambasts-milei-for-deal-with-imf.
Marshall, Andrew MacGregor. (2014). A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century.London: Zed Books, 2014.
Micklethwait, John and Wooldridge, Adrian. (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America. New York: Penguin Press.
Moffitt, Benjamin. (2016). The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.
Moffitt, Benjamin. (2020). Populism. Cambridge: Polity.
Mudde, Cass and Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal. (2017). Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, Jan-Werner. (2016). What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
O’Donnell, Guillermo. (1994). “Delegative Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5, no. 1: 55–69.
Palacios, Irene. (2025). “How Democratic Backsliding and Populism affect trust in democratic institutions.” Democratization, 32:8, 1827-1850.
Palaiologos, Yannis. (2014). The 13th Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek Crisis. London: Portobello Books.
Paul, Rand. (2011). The Tea Party Goes to Washington. NY: Hatchett Book Group.
Palmer, Tom G. (2019). “The Terrifying Rise of Authoritarian Populism.” CATO Institute Commentary.
Plate, Tom. (2011). From Exile to Deliverance: Thailand’s Populist Tycoon Tells His Story. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions.
Papaconstantinou, George. (2016). Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis. Athens: Papadopoulos Publishing.
Παππάς, Τάκης. (2014). Λαϊκισμός και Κρίση στην Ελλάδα. Αθήνα: Ίκαρος.
Pappas, Takis. (2019). Populism and Liberal Democracy: A Comparative and Theoretical Approach. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
Παππάς, Τάκης. (2024). Παράδοξη Χώρα: Γιατί η Ελλάδα υστερεί σε σχέση με την Ιρλανδία και την Πορτογαλία και τι μπορούμε να μάθουμε από αυτές. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Πατάκη.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2000). Thailand’s Crisis. Singapore: Institute of South Asian Studies.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2004). Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2009). A History of Thailand. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rowland, Robert. (2021). The Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Rucker, Philip and Leonning, Carol. (2020). A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. New York: Penguin Press.
Ruth, Richard. (2021). A Brief History of Thailand: Monarchy, War and Resilience. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Schedler, Andreas. (2013). The Politics of Uncertainty: Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Skocpol, Theda and Williamson, Vanessa. (2012). The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Economist. (2025). “Argentina’s Finances Got Even More Surreal.” The Economist, September 25, 2025.
The Guardian. (2026). “Five EU Governments found to ‘consistently’ dismantle rule of law.” The Guardian, March 30, 2026.
Tanzi, Vito. (2007). Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. New York: Jorge Pinto Books.
Tziovas, Dimitris, (ed.) (2017). Greece in Crisis: The Cultural Politics of Austerity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
US Congress. (01/07/2025). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/23/text/is
Weyland, Kurt. (2001). “Populism as a Political Strategy.” Comparative Politics 31, no. 4: 1–22.
Williamson, Vanessa; Skocpol, Theda and Coggin, John. (2011). “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.” Perspectives on Politics 9, no. 1 (March 2011): 25–43.
White House Archives (January 20, 2017). The Inaugural Address. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/
From Economic Crisis to Democratic Backsliding: Evidence from Thailand, Argentina, the United States, and Greece
Akis Kalaitzidis
Economic crises often serve as incubators of populism. When currencies collapse, or debts spiral out of control, mainstream parties lose credibility, creating openings for leaders who claim to defend “the people” against distant elites. The cases of Thailand, Argentina, the United States, and Greece illustrate how crises enable populism, how populists frame economic struggles, and use them to subvert the political order. In Thailand, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis led to IMF-imposed reforms that hurt the rural poor. Thaksin Shinawatra rose on a populist platform of cheap healthcare and rural development, casting himself as defender of the countryside against Bangkok elites (Phongpaichit & Baker, 2009). In Argentina, the 2001–2002 default discredited neoliberal economic policies. Néstor and Cristina Kirchner mobilized popular anger against the IMF and creditors, mixing subsidies and protectionism with nationalist rhetoric (Levitsky & Murillo, 2008). In the United States, the 2008 financial crash produced dual populist currents: the Tea Party and Donald Trump on the right, and Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders on the left, both targeting elites, including Wall Street and the Washington establishment (Skocpol & Williamson, 2012; Frank, 2016). In Greece, Syriza rose during the Eurozone crisis, opposing austerity and demanding sovereignty from the EU “Troika” (Pappas, 2019). Across these cases, populists reframed abstract economic shocks as moral struggles, pitting ordinary people against elites, technocrats, or foreign powers (Mudde & Rovira Kaltwasser, 2017). Their policies emphasized immediate relief—subsidies, redistribution, debt resistance—over fiscal orthodoxy. Yet each also confronted the hard limits of global capitalism, leading to compromise, backlash, or renewed instability (Dornbusch & Edwards, 1991; Kahler & Lake, 2013). Economic crises highlight the tension between national democracy and global markets; populism thrives in this gap, using it to decay institutions and norms in democratic states. I argue that economic crises lead to democratic backsliding.
Keywords:Populism, Economic Crises, Democratic backsliding, Greece, USA, Thailand, Argentina
References
Alabarces, Pablo. Soccer and the Return of Argentine Politics. Report on Sport and Society 37, no. 5 (March/April 2004).
AP Fact Check: “Trump’s Birther Claims.” Associated Press. September 26, 2016. https://apnews.com/events-united-states-presidential-election-bc9e054698e644e8bc5c05e7f9812291
Baker, Peter & Glasser, Susan (2022). The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021. NY: Doubleday
Bermeo, Nancy. (2016). “On Democratic Backsliding” Journal of Democracy, Vol 27, Number 1, pp. 5-19.
Bernanke, Ben. (2012). “The Economic Recovery and Economic Policy.” Speech, November 20, 2012. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20121120a.htm.
Bluestein, Paul. (2005). And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out). New York: Public Affairs, 2005.
Bunce, Valerie & Wolchik, Sharon. (2011). Defeating Authoritarian Leaders in Post-Communist Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brinks, Daniel; Leiras, Marcelo and Mainwaring, Scott. (eds.) (2014). Reflections on Uneven Democracies: The Legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chachavalpongpun, Pavin, (ed.) (2020). Coup, King, Crisis: A Critical Interregnum in Thailand. New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies.
———, (ed.) (2020). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Connors, Michael & Pathmanand (eds.). (2021). Thai Politics in Translation: Monarchy, Democracy and the Supra-Constitution. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Davies, William. (2025). “Repeal the 20th Century.” London Review of Books 47, no. 17.
Dendrinou, Victoria and Varvitsioti, Eleni (2019). The Last Bluff: How Greece Came Face to Face with Financial Catastrophe and the Secret Plan for Its Euro Exit. Athens: Papadopoulos Publishing.
De la Torre, Carlos. (2018). Populisms: A Quick Immersion. Lexington, KY: Quick Immersions.
Desai, Padma. (2003). Financial Crisis, Contagion and Containment: From Asia to Argentina. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Diamond, Larry; Plattner, Marc and Brun, Diego Abente (eds.) (2008). Latin America’s Struggle for Democracy.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dornbusch, Rüdiger and Edwards, Sebastian. (1991) “The Macroeconomics of Populism.” In: The Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America, edited by Rüdiger Dornbusch and Sebastian Edwards, 7–13. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Faulder, Dominic. (2018). Anand Panyarachun and the Making of Modern Thailand. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet.
Ferrara, Federico. (2015). The Political Development of Modern Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foa, Roberto Stefan and Mounk, Yascha. (2017). “The Signs of Deconsolidation.” Journal of Democracy, 28, no.1: 5-65.
Frank, Thomas. (2016). Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? New York: Metropolitan Books.
Gibson, James and Sutherland, Joseph. (2023). “Keeping Your Mouth Shut: Spiraling Self-Censorship in the United States.” Political Science Quarterly 138, no. 3: 361–76.
Goodwin, Lawrence. (1978). The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gurr, Ted. (1970). Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hayward, Jack (ed.) (1996). Elitism, Populism, and European Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hedges, Jill. (2015) Argentina: A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris.
Hofstadter, Richard. (1962). Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. New York: Vintage.
———. (2008). The Paranoid Style in American Politics. New York: Vintage.
Judis, John. (2016). The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics.New York: Columbia Global Reports.
International Monetary Fund. (2009). World Economic Outlook, April 2009: Crisis and Recovery. Washington, DC: IMF.
Kahler, Miles and Lake, David A. (2013). Politics in the New Hard Times: The Great Recession in Comparative Perspective. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Kalyvas, Stathis. (2015). Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Labrianidis, Lois and Pratsinakis, Manolis. (2017). “Crisis Brain Drain: Short-Term Pain/Long-Term Gain?” In: Greece in Crisis: The Cultural Politics of Austerity, edited by Dimitris Tziovas, 215–36. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
Levitsky, Steven and Roberts, Kenneth. (2011). “Latin America’s ‘Left Turn’: A Framework of Analysis.” In: The Resurgence of the Latin American Left, edited by Steven Levitsky and Kenneth Roberts, 1–28. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Levitsky, Steven and Murillo, María Victoria. (2008). “Argentina: From Kirchner to Kirchner.” Journal of Democracy 19, no. 2: 16–30.
———, (eds.) (2005). Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Levitsky, Steven. (2005). “Crisis and Renovation: Institutional Weakness and the Transformation of Argentine Peronism, 1983–2003.” In: Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness, edited by Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo, 193–216. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
MercoPress. (2025). “CFK Lambasts Milei for Deal with IMF.” March 10, 2025. https://en.mercopress.com/2025/03/10/cfk-lambasts-milei-for-deal-with-imf.
Marshall, Andrew MacGregor. (2014). A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century.London: Zed Books, 2014.
Micklethwait, John and Wooldridge, Adrian. (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America. New York: Penguin Press.
Moffitt, Benjamin. (2016). The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016.
Moffitt, Benjamin. (2020). Populism. Cambridge: Polity.
Mudde, Cass and Rovira Kaltwasser, Cristóbal. (2017). Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, Jan-Werner. (2016). What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
O’Donnell, Guillermo. (1994). “Delegative Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5, no. 1: 55–69.
Palacios, Irene. (2025). “How Democratic Backsliding and Populism affect trust in democratic institutions.” Democratization, 32:8, 1827-1850.
Palaiologos, Yannis. (2014). The 13th Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek Crisis. London: Portobello Books.
Paul, Rand. (2011). The Tea Party Goes to Washington. NY: Hatchett Book Group.
Palmer, Tom G. (2019). “The Terrifying Rise of Authoritarian Populism.” CATO Institute Commentary.
Plate, Tom. (2011). From Exile to Deliverance: Thailand’s Populist Tycoon Tells His Story. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Editions.
Papaconstantinou, George. (2016). Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis. Athens: Papadopoulos Publishing.
Παππάς, Τάκης. (2014). Λαϊκισμός και Κρίση στην Ελλάδα. Αθήνα: Ίκαρος.
Pappas, Takis. (2019). Populism and Liberal Democracy: A Comparative and Theoretical Approach. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
Παππάς, Τάκης. (2024). Παράδοξη Χώρα: Γιατί η Ελλάδα υστερεί σε σχέση με την Ιρλανδία και την Πορτογαλία και τι μπορούμε να μάθουμε από αυτές. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Πατάκη.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2000). Thailand’s Crisis. Singapore: Institute of South Asian Studies.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2004). Thaksin: The Business of Politics in Thailand. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. (2009). A History of Thailand. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rowland, Robert. (2021). The Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Rucker, Philip and Leonning, Carol. (2020). A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. New York: Penguin Press.
Ruth, Richard. (2021). A Brief History of Thailand: Monarchy, War and Resilience. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
Schedler, Andreas. (2013). The Politics of Uncertainty: Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Skocpol, Theda and Williamson, Vanessa. (2012). The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Economist. (2025). “Argentina’s Finances Got Even More Surreal.” The Economist, September 25, 2025.
The Guardian. (2026). “Five EU Governments found to ‘consistently’ dismantle rule of law.” The Guardian, March 30, 2026.
Tanzi, Vito. (2007). Argentina: An Economic Chronicle. New York: Jorge Pinto Books.
Tziovas, Dimitris, (ed.) (2017). Greece in Crisis: The Cultural Politics of Austerity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
US Congress. (01/07/2025). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/23/text/is
Weyland, Kurt. (2001). “Populism as a Political Strategy.” Comparative Politics 31, no. 4: 1–22.
Williamson, Vanessa; Skocpol, Theda and Coggin, John. (2011). “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.” Perspectives on Politics 9, no. 1 (March 2011): 25–43.
White House Archives (January 20, 2017). The Inaugural Address. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/