Authoritarianism is a form of government that can draw on the other two, but also

exists separately. There are other forms of legitimacy that autocrats can draw on
(output legitimacy, such as economic growth, or input legitimacy, such as
theocracy, communism). Nationalism provides, however, an important source of
legitimacy, either as building legitimacy against external actors or against
domestic others (minorities and opposition). However, it is often unconsolidated
democracies that are the most susceptible to virulent nationalism. This is for two
distinct reasons: (1) During periods of democratization, new institutions and rules
have to be set that define the political community, consider the constitution,
citizenship or electoral laws: is the state a nation-state, does a core nation have
privileged access to citizenship, are ethnic kin allowed to vote or some groups
excluded? (2) Political competition is imperfect and nationalism provides for an
easy and ready-made ideology that can compete on the ‘marketplace of ideas’
(Helbing, 2013; Snyder & Ballentine, 1996). Furthermore, authoritarian attitudes
among citizens often correlate closely with the nationalist worldview
(Eckhardt, 1991; Todosijević, 1998).

The other concept that is often mentioned interchangeably with nationalism is

populism. Similar to nationalism, populism is a versatile ideology. It seeks to
represent ‘the people’ against an elite, however defined. It thus promotes
majoritarianism and rejects institutions that restrain the supposed will of the
majority (Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2017, 6). If populists define the people in national
terms, a tempting strategy in both nation-states and in multinational states,
populism and nationalism merge, whereby the ‘corrupt elite’ can be either a
minority, which is accused of holding political or economic power (as is often the
case in anti-Semitic or anti-Chinese strategies) or the elite is accused of being
beholden to foreign interests. Populists need not be autocrats, but the implicit
erosion of checks and balances and the Manichean worldview of populism does
lend itself as both a legitimizing strategy for autocrats, or more importantly,
populists drift towards authoritarianism in power.