Public ideas
Why many people have turned away from liberal democracy
One of our readers has put me on to the Ezra Klein Show, a regular 90-minute podcast hosted by the New York Times. A recent episode (November 1) is A powerful theory of why the far right is thriving across the globe. Ezra Klein interviews Pippa Norris of Harvard’s Kennedy School, about what seems to be an almost inexorable rise of right-wing strongmen, interrupted only by occasional setbacks, such as Bolsonaro’s narrow defeat.
Norris ascribes much to generational dynamics. The “left” was traditionally concerned with material living standards in traditional labour-capital conflicts, but as workers’ conditions improved in the great boom after 1945, the next generation of left thinkers embraced other issues, including women’s equality, secularization and climate change. These concerns have not aligned with traditional party structures, and are seen as threatening to the traditional order by those who feel disoriented in the emerging political landscape. One manifestation is a broad reaction against what many see as a “woke agenda”.
Parties of the traditional “genteel right” have been taken over by rowdier movements. Unrestrained by old norms of respect for institutions and polite discourse, they are able to get through to the people who feel disoriented and left behind, and to appeal to largely-contrived identities, such as race and Christianity. When people are frightened and disoriented they cling to whatever identity they can summon from some imagined past.
Norris, like Klein, sees the 2008 financial crisis as a political turning point, because it represented a failure of the global economic order.
Farage, Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, Erdoğan, Orbán and other thugs have thrived by relating to those who seek the assurance offered by a strong “leader”. Their political ascension is helped by the fading of the collective memory of how fascism arose in the 1930s. That may be why the world is not outraged by Orbán’s assertion that he does not want Hungary to become a mixed-race country, for example.
Like their predecessors in Europe 100 years ago, they appeal to those who feel downtrodden by the privileged, but while they are dismissive of academics, civil servants and scientists, whom they classify as privileged élites, they are careful to keep oligarchs on side.
Norris is a little more optimistic that many others about America’s capability to save itself from destroying its own democratic institutions – an optimism maybe confirmed in the midterm election outcome.
She mentions many countries, but none east of India. East Asian democracies – Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand – where political polarization is less prominent, don’t get a mention. All these countries have their own extreme right movements, but we may ask if they are as ascendant as they are in the US and Europe?
She could also have gone further in explaining how the populist right has rallied support by misrepresenting the left as a strong and evil force threatening the family, Christianity, and all that is wholesome. One can see this tactic in one of their typical calls to arms in a recent Spectator article by Jordan Knight The Right will slay this Woke dystopia (capitals in original), in which they go so far as to criticize Dutton for being too soft on immigration.
Pope Francis in Bahrain
Some may be surprised to know that although in many middle-eastern countries Islam is an established religion, most have long-established Christian and Jewish communities. The Jewish communities have ancient roots, and no discernible social or political connection with Israel.
In that context Pope Francis’s visit to Bahrain, where he joined Muslim and Jewish leaders in calling for the world’s religions to work for peace, is nothing extraordinary. It could even be seen as a pastoral visit to Christians in the region. Or it could be seen as a recognition of the common ground shared by Abrahamic religions. Or it could be seen as a message to the world stressed by wars and rumours of war. Diplomatically the Vatican leaves a degree of ambiguity about the purpose of papal visits.
The Vatican has published his speech on the occasion of the “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence”. It’s carefully drafted, with a predictable condemnation of “the monstrous and senseless reality of war”, and a call to stop the destruction of the world’s ecosystems. His speech also touches on labour rights and the condition of women – both sensitive issues in Arab countries. Deutsche Welle reports that during his visit he specifically asked Bahraini authorities to repeal the death penalty.