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After thirty years of retreat, the last decade has witnessed a resurgent left in the United States and Western Europe. This upsurge of anti-establishment candidates was not only left-wing but also populist. Though in most cases these movements ran out of steam before getting to a position to wield state power, many of the parties and figures associated with this wave of left populism have entered government and others are still contesting high office.
Providing a blow-by-blow history of the rise and defeat of this movement, Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger guide us through the conditions that shaped it. Extreme and rising inequality, the collapse of civic life, and a lack of trust in traditional institutions have all played a part. In these circumstances, some form of populism was all but inevitable. And, despite defeats, left offensives will remain populist in nature for the foreseeable future. The formative conditions of crisis are still very much with us.
About the author
Anton Jäger holds a PhD in history from Cambridge and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leuven. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, and New Left Review.Arthur Borriello is Professor in Political Science at the Université de Namur. He has published on populism and the political transformations in Southern Europe in publications including Jacobin, Mediapart, Catalyst and Le Travail.
Summary
The operative term for modern politics is "populist"
Report
In The Populist Moment, Borriello and Jäger provide much needed clarity and a grounded understanding of the origins, character, appeal, and limits of post-class populist mobilization as the basis for the left challenge to the dominant regime of intensifying global inequality. The book is a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the current political moment and especially for those seriously committed to generating an effective anticapitalist politics. Adolph Reed, author of The South
