Over at Bloomberg, Adrian Wooldridge discusses the recent fall of Boris Johnson as Britain's PM. The article raises interesting questions about the future of populism. On Sunday, at the first in-person meeting of the Global Trends class, we will discuss the structural factors that led to the emergence of populist movements in multiple countries around the world. Wooldridge is correct to point out that these movements have witnessed setbacks in recent months - first with Donald Trump's failure to get reelected, and now with Boris Johnson's resignation. Macron's reelection in France is also a case in point. It is true that, in many ways, populist movements are self-defeating: the sorts of policy prescriptions that they offer are unlikely to deliver the results that their electorates hope for, and their lack of experience in government makes for, shall we say, rocky tenures. Wooldridge does a great job describing this self-destructiveness.
But, like Wooldridge, I would not read too much in these recent events. The underlying factors that are associated with the success of populist political movements have not drastically changed: rising inequality, stagnant economic opportunities, continued globalization in terms of trade and immigration, and a reaction against progressive value change (highlighted in the readings for Module 3) - among other factors. It is possible that electorates will realize that populist movements do not have magical answers to their concerns. But until these concerns are addressed in meaningful ways by the political system, the systematic rejection of incumbents that we tend to see in country after country will likely continue.