"Populists in power expand executive authority and weaken institutional checks." Critically evaluate the safeguards a constitutional democracy can deploy against this tendency.

Populism is the politics of whatever is, or can be made, popular with the people. Once in office, populists tend to expand executive authority and game electoral and institutional checks so they can stay in power [1]. A constitution offers several safeguards against this. How well they work depends on whether institutions stay independent and whether citizens trust them.

Safeguards and their strengths

• Constitutional entrenchment: the Kesavananda Bharati (1973) basic structure doctrine stops any majority from amending away democracy, judicial review or the rule of law [2].
• Free elections: Article 324 gives an independent Election Commission charge of elections [3]. Regular elections still punish incumbents: the Republicans' historic defeat in the 2026 U.S. midterms showed the electoral check working [1].
• Judicial review: under Articles 32 and 226, courts can strike down arbitrary executive action [3].
• Limits on emergency powers: the 44th Amendment replaced "internal disturbance" with "armed rebellion" as a ground under Article 352 and made written Cabinet advice mandatory [3]. This was a lesson from 1975.
• Participatory voice: the Gram Sabha (Article 243A) [3] gives citizens a direct say. The OECD's 2026 survey finds that people's sense of political voice is a central driver of trust in government [4].

Limitations

• Capture from within: populists rarely abolish institutions. They use them for their own ends through appointments and procedure [1]. Rules written on paper cannot stop this on their own.
• Courts have limits: the judiciary cannot enforce its own orders. It can be bypassed through delay or new legislation, and it is open to the charge of being "anti-majority".
• Party discipline: the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) curbs dissent within the ruling party [3]. This weakens the legislature as a check.
• Distrust remains: 44% of people in OECD countries report low or no trust in their national government, against 39% with high trust [5]. Legal safeguards do not address the grievances that feed populism.
• Populism comes back: it "surfaces in democracies from time to time" [1]. One defeat at the polls does not end it.

Safeguards work as a system, not one by one. They hold when courts, election bodies, the press and an informed public reinforce each other. The way forward is to:

• protect appointments to oversight bodies from executive control;
• strengthen parliamentary committees;
• give Gram Sabhas real powers.

Ambedkar's idea of constitutional morality, that leaders and citizens must internalise constitutional values, is the deepest safeguard. Without it, even the strongest checks cannot hold.