The New Language Of European Populism
Civilizationist populism was first pioneered a decade and a half ago by the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. A stylish, openly gay, former Marxist sociologist, Fortuyn transformed himself, in the months...
View Article2017 Was The Year Of False Promise In The Fight Against Populism
Populist movements have been on the rise for at least two decades, but anxiety about the phenomenon reached its high point a year ago. That should be no surprise. 2016 was the year in which populism...
View ArticleWhat Does Mark Zuckerberg’s Pledge Of Fixing Facebook’s Issues Mean For The...
The question had been raised before: What if Facebook, struggling with the global “fake news” problem, just threw up its Like hands and de-prioritised news altogether? In the dawn of 2018, it doesn’t...
View ArticleChina’s Xi Jinping And Russia’s Vladimir Putin Are Putting Strongman Politics...
Strongman politics is back. And for anyone who thought otherwise, a quick peruse of this weekend’s headlines should help set them straight. In Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping received a...
View ArticleMany Around the World Are Disengaged From Politics
An engaged citizenry is often considered a sign of a healthy democracy. High levels of political and civic participation increase the likelihood that the voices of ordinary citizens will be heard in...
View ArticleThis Is How We Radicalised The World
Populist leaders and the legions of influencers riding their wave know they can create filter bubbles inside of platforms like Facebook or YouTube that promise a safer time, one that never existed in...
View ArticlePopulism’s Common Denominator
What unites supporters of authoritarian, upstart politicians like US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro is revulsion against the corruption of the political process....
View ArticleA Better Populism
The only policy that left- and right-wing populists can agree on to address economic decline is trade protectionism, which will make the world poorer. A new type of populism that puts more trust in...
View ArticleSpringtime For Nationalism?
Is populism still on the rise? That question will be looming over elections in Israel, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Spain, and the European Union over the next two months. Yet it will be...
View ArticleThe Twin Rise Of Populism And Authoritarianism
Globally, the past decade has been marked by the twin advances of authoritarianism and populism. The two are not always linked, but in situations ranging from the Philippines and Cambodia to Hungary...
View ArticleThe Coming Automation Of Propaganda
This emerging threat draws its power from vulnerabilities in our society: an unaware public, an underprepared legal system, and social media companies not sufficiently concerned with their...
View ArticleWhy the New Autocrats Are Weaker Than They Look
It has been a good decade for dictatorship. The global influence of the world’s most powerful authoritarian countries, China and Russia, has grown rapidly. For the first time since the late nineteenth...
View ArticleTwo Democracies, Two Very Different Elections
Both the United States and the United Kingdom experienced seismic votes in 2016. The outcomes of both—the decision to leave the European Union in Britain and the election of Donald Trump in the...
View ArticleThe Year In Stupidity
Stupidity, especially in the political sphere, often comes with a side of brutality, and keeping track of it, rather than allowing it to pile on, might help us to hold fast to our higher selves. Also,...
View ArticleHow A Democratic Counteroffensive Can Win
With authoritarian nationalism continuing to gain ground around the world, it would be easy to give in to despair. But there are also grounds to hope for the survival of open societies, which are,...
View ArticleThe Lure Of Fascism
Ours is the age of the rule by ‘strong men’: leaders who believe that they have been elected to deliver the will of the people. Woe betide anything that stands in the way, be it the political...
View ArticleHow To Defeat Disinformation
After four fractious years of politicisation and polarisation, however, it will take more than official pledges to address the degradation of public discourse… The next administration will do better...
View ArticleTruth After Trump
Donald Trump is more dangerous than a mere liar because he found a way to exploit the economic doppelgänger of science. Behind every government policy that affects us lurks some economic hypothesis...
View ArticleThe Sun Never Set On The British Empire’s Oppression
Across Asia, in places such as Myanmar, India, and Hong Kong, leaders that espouse nationalist rhetoric and bemoan their former colonial overlords see no issue with deploying laws designed by those...
View ArticleAmerica First, Biden-Style
Does US President Joe Biden want a dynamic America, open to the world, or Donald Trump’s anxious America, suspicious and contemptuous of others? Until Biden offers a bold gesture to exorcise the...
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