Why Populists Love Dead Soldiers and Hate Live Officers

Abstract Right-wing populist leaders often seem to love soldiers (especially fallen ones) and the trappings of military life. But their love affair with the military rarely endures. This article explains this seeming paradox through the political logic of populism. Romanticizing and mythologizing the military solves a political problem for populists: how to mobilize people power without actually granting power to the people. Soldiers who willingly risk their lives for the nation serve as a model for an obedient public that should similarly march into the political battlefield on behalf of the populist leader. Dead soldiers cannot object when a populist leader exploits their memory. Populists understand that an independent, professional military is always at least a latent threat to their political ambitions. Once populists have bent other institutions to their will, they seek to control the military, erode its autonomy and professionalism, and transform it into a realm of loyalists. If the military resists, populists undermine public trust in it to facilitate taking it over. The article explores these dynamics in five case studies: Brazil under Bolsonaro; India under Modi; Poland under the Law and Justice Party; Turkey under Erdoğan; and the United States under Trump.