”Much has been made of Trump’s victory as the latest example of the Western world’s inevitable move away from liberal democracy towards nationalism and far-right politics and policies. I’m not convinced that this is an accurate characterisation of the US election outcome. A more accurate description may be that we are in a period in which incumbents lose elections. This includes far-right parties, if they have made it to power, as illustrated by Trump’s loss four years ago and the Polish election 16 months ago. For whatever the reason, an increasingly impatient population leads to revolving doors for governments – unless, that is, the incoming farright governments begin to undermine democracy itself to stay in power. The risk of that happening is greater during a second term, than during the first term, as argued persuasively by Ivan Krastev in a piece in April last year. Based on recent European history, Krastev concludes that “the populist leader who returns after having been ousted by the “deep state” is not in the mood for reconciliation, but for payback.” Læs hele analysen her
Morten W. Langer
