Rightwing populism in particular relies on an ever-expanding list of enemies from urban elites to benefit claimants, immigrants to deep-state bureaucrats, diversity officers to leftwing radicals, net zero zealots to mild liberals yet this list always contains a striking omission.
Populism may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred.
The planet is experiencing a veritable global wave of autocratisation, according to the report 25 Years of Autocratisation: Democracy Trumped?, by the Swedish University of Gothenburg's V-DEM Institute. The world now has 88 democracies compared to 91 autocracies, which is a radical change from last year, according to the report. Liberal democracies have become the least common type of regime globally. Almost three out of four people, or 72% of humanity, now live in autocracies, the report points out.
One of the great mysteries about the rise of populism, in both the United States and Europe, is why it has benefited the political right so much more than the left. For years, American progressives have been trying to get people worked up over rising rates of economic inequality, with the expectation that this anger could fuel greater support for the Democratic Party.
"The Larry Summers era is over," Politico proclaimed, after the House Oversight Committee released correspondence from Jeffrey Epstein's estate attributed to the veteran Harvard economist Lawrence Summers. That framing seemed a bit over the top. It is true, though, that, in the thirty-plus years that I've been writing about the economy and economic policy, Summers has been pretty much a constant presence.
One paradox of American politics is that voters are both extremely polarized about politics and extremely disdainful of political parties. A record share, 43 percent, self-identify as political independents. Most of these are not true swing voters, but they hold both major parties in low regard. As of September, only 40 percent of voters approved of the ruling Republican Party. The Democrats' favorability was an even more miserable 37 percent-barely above their July showing, their worst in more than 30 years.
It seems like Arthur Miller's The Crucible always finds its way back into my life somehow. From first reading the play in high school to performing in it a decade ago to rolling my eyes at Aaron Sorkin's sexist misinterpretation of it, the quintessential "political play" finds new and interesting ways to once again grab my attention, faults and all. I thought of it again after the past week's exciting political developments.
One of the more striking images from June's G7 summit showed a small group of world leaders engaged in an impromptu and informal evening chat at the venue's restaurant. In the foreground of that photo was a familiar blond head: Giorgia Meloni. During her three years as the Italian prime minister, Meloni has moved beyond her hard-right populism, not to mention her fascism-adjacent origins, to earn at least the respect of other leaders Keir Starmer among them for her pragmatism and flexibility.
Surangel Whipps, president of the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, was sitting in the front row of the UN's general assembly in New York when Donald Trump made a long and rambling speech, his first to the UN since his re-election, on 23 September. Whipps was prepared for fury and bombast from the US president, but what followed was shocking.
Speaking on the eve of the UN's climate summit, Ed Miliband said it was the cause progressives could rally around, because most people recognise populist parties have got it wrong. We're not going to give up and the progress that we've already made should give us heart, he said. Giving up would be a total betrayal. Defeatism never took a single of a fraction of a degree of global warming. It never created a single job.
The Green party is offering simple solutions to complex problems and making undeliverable promises to voters ahead of the next election that could leave them disappointed, the prime minister's chief secretary has said. Darren Jones, one of Keir Starmer's most powerful ministers, said the resurgent Greens were a bit like the populist left version of the populist right of Reform UK, and that both were in danger of letting down voters.
Zohran Mamdani was forged in the era of Donald Trump. He came to socialism through watching Bernie Sanders run for the US presidency in 2016, in the contest that ultimately gave us Trump I. Last November, a few days after the election of Trump II, he asked voters why they'd backed that guy. The conversations prepared Mamdani in his battle for New York, and the film of them reveals so much about the politics of this era that it repays watching.
The dirtbag left, as it became known, mostly revolved, at its start, around the podcast "Chapo Trap House," the Democratic Socialists of America, and a few scattered high-follower social-media accounts. Its adherents were largely disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters who believed that the populist movement behind their candidate had been upended and diverted by a cabal of soulless careerists in both politics and, perhaps more pointedly, in the political media.
Theresa May has delivered a thinly veiled rebuke to Robert Jenrick after he launched an attack on British judges earlier this month. In a wide-ranging critique on the direction of her party, the former Conservative prime minister warned against using populism for a short-term political end. She challenged the Tories' approach to net zero, the judiciary and human rights, urging the party to show leadership instead.
I think we've now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message for your country, he said on Friday, as tallying from news agency ANP showed he was on course to win. The pro-EU, liberal D66 tripled its seat count with an upbeat campaign and a surge in advertising spending,
Ever since Donald Trump's election in 2016, liberals and the left have struggled to understand the meaning of his rise, and that of "Trumpism," for American politics. When Trump entered the political scene, he was hard to take seriously. In his first campaign, he seemed-initially, at least-to be a zombie headline straight from the New York Post 's"Page Six": a faded reality-TV star, a bankrupt real estate speculator, a huckster, a creep, and a punch line.
For me, it was seeing that what was offered (by rightwing parties) was not relevant to where I was at the time as a student. I had no money, no job, no connections and no clue about where I wanted to go with my life. But I did know I didn't want to work in London, wearing formal office attire and being a slave to the nine-to-five grind for the rest of my days. The leftwing parties seemed to offer more inclusion and be more welcoming to ordinary folk like me. So that's where I looked for my political home.
Emmanuel Macron sounded like a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a degeneration of democracy. Many threats emanated from outside, from Russia, from China, from powerful US tech companies and social-media entrepreneurs, France's president said. But we should not be naive. On the inside we are turning on ourselves. We doubt our own democracy We see everywhere that something is happening to our democratic fabric.
Speaking to the Guardian, he said: The picture of Welsh politics is changing and Plaid Cymru is the voice of progressive Wales. We have consistent polling showing Plaid Cymru in the lead. Reform is also polling well and Labour is falling further behind. I think it's becoming more and more clear it's a two-horse race - Reform's division versus Plaid's vision.
When President Donald Trump delivered a barrage of false statements about climate change during his September 23 speech to the UN General Assembly, he made headlines around the world. Mocking climate change as a "con job" promoted by "stupid people," Trump's remarks also illustrated a dilemma facing journalism's traditional approach to covering politics, where not appearing to take sides has long been a cardinal rule. As more and more political leaders and movements mirror Trump's habit of making factually inaccurate claims, a new report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism offers a fresh way to think about this dilemma, along with a host of practical tools for tackling it.
Self-described Trumpist' Andrej Babis has campaigned on pledges of welfare and halting military aid to Ukraine. Czechs are casting their ballots in a two-day general election, in which the party of populist billionaire Andrej Babis is expected to garner the most votes but not secure a majority, raising concerns that Ukraine ally the Czech Republic may draw closer to pro-Russian European Union countries Hungary and Slovakia.
Japan's foreign aid agency has scrapped a cultural exchange initiative with African countries after an online misinformation campaign led to a torrent of complaints and fear of increased immigration. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced on Thursday that it will cancel the Africa Hometown scheme, after an episode that experts say illustrates the potential impact of fake news and populist narratives to shape migration policy.
Then they return with force, helping us understand today's world, explaining how and when it fell apart, and what allowed someone like Donald Trump to rise to power. The American theorist, a leading voice in progressive thought, dissects causes and consequences with surgical precision in each of his books, and never shies away from bringing some of the great ideas of classical and contemporary thought to everyday citizens.
The fresh face of pro-EU liberalism swept to power the following year on a promise of radical change to bring France into the 21st century. Eight years on, with France engulfed by political crisis and with no obvious way to break the gridlock, Macron's lofty ambitions have aged poorly. Francois Bayrou, who entered politics before the president was born, has become the third prime minister to resign in the space of a year.
True MAGA adherents may revolt if Trump's successor strays from hardcore populism. Business leaders could balk if they lean too far the other way. On the populist side: Trump has used tariffs to fundamentally remake the global trading order, with the goal of both punishing countries who "cheat" the U.S. and boosting domestic manufacturing. He's waged a public war on the Federal Reserve - railing against high interest rates as punishing ordinary Americans, and threatening the independence of the central bank.
