PRINCETON ¨C Think back to late June and early July. The French far right was favored to win a snap parliamentary election. Trumpist judges in the United States were conveniently resolving the legal woes of the former president, who seemed to be gliding to victory after President Joe Biden¡¯s disastrous debate performance. And while Britain was getting a Labour government, a new anti-immigration party led by the chief Brexiteer, Nigel Farage, had made unprecedented gains. Faced with it all, pundits warned that a wave of populist, ¡°anti-incumbency¡± rage was sweeping across the world¡¯s democracies.
The commentariat¡¯s bleak outlook should since have been tempered by new sources of political hope. Not only is there little evidence of a ¡°populist wave¡± ¡ª a metaphor that conjures images of far-right parties inevitably rising to power in many countries ¡ª but recent experience suggests workable strategies for countering such forces.
One lesson from the past few months might sound like a truism: All parties that value democracy must unite to face down anti-democratic threats. This is what happened in France, to many pundits¡¯ surprise. Left-wing parties formed the New Popular Front, evoking memories of the fight against fascism in the 1930s, when the socialist leader Leon Blum led a coalition of communists, socialists and liberals to defend the republic.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.