<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/05/number-of-populist-world-leaders-at-20-year-low>
"The number of populist leaders around the world has fallen to a 20-year low
after a series of victories for progressives and centrists over the past year,
according to analysis from the Tony Blair Institute showing the number of
people living under populist rule has fallen by 800 million in two years.
The research claims 2023 could be an equally decisive year for populism, with
critical elections in Turkey and Poland. Those two elections could see two of
the most influential populist governments in the world fall, though that may
yet require divided opposition parties in both countries to form clearer
coalition programmes than they have managed so far.
Of the populists who lost power, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Slovenia’s Janez
Janša were defeated in relatively close elections in 2022, while Rodrigo
Duterte of the Philippines was limited to one term in office and could not run
for re-election. In Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was driven out of office by
protests.
The report says 1.7 billion people were living under a populist leader at the
start of 2023, compared with 2.5 billion in 2020. It says that populism on both
left and right is defined by two claims – that a country’s “true people” are
locked into a moral conflict with “outsiders” and, second, that nothing should
constrain the will of the “true people”.
Much of the decline in populism has occurred in Latin America, notably with the
defeat of Bolsonaro in Brazil, the report said, but also with the election of a
generation of moderate leftists across Latin America that have “disavowed
populist rhetoric and focused on progressive economic and social rights rather
than the populist left’s historic focus on industrial nationalisation”.
The report also notes that in the US midterm elections, a majority of
candidates endorsed by Donald Trump who espoused rightwing nationalism and
conspiracy theories failed to be elected and underperformed against moderates."
Via
Future Crunch 195: Density Is Not Destiny
<
https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews-global-democracy-cancer-usa-rhinos-india/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
