Populism and Globalization

The narrative of populism as a "rising tide" has enjoyed currency at least since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the success of the "Leave" campaign in the UK referendum on membership of the EU earlier in that year. And yet, on the eve of what proved to be President Trump's election defeat some four years later, the British journalist Nick Cohen felt able to muse "(w)e're endlessly told why populism works. Now see how it might fail" (October 10, 2020). So, one might be forgiven for thinking that what goes around must eventually come around. However, things are not that simple, and the runes are harder to read.

Barrie Axford isProfessor of Politics and a member of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES - http://www.social-sciences.brookes.ac.uk/research/gpes/). I serve as a member of the International Editorial Boards of the journals Globalizations, Telematics and Informatics, The International Journal of Electronic Governance and Reinventions. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Studies Association. Recent books include 'Theories of Globalization' (Polity, 2013) and 'Cultures and / of Gobalization' (CSP, 2011) edited with Richard Huggins; 'Mere Connection: the World-Making Power of New Media' for Routledge (2018), and the 3rd edition of 'Politics: An Introduction' also for Routledge, with Victoria Browne, Richard Huggins and Rico Isaacs (2019). I have recently co-edited a collection of research papers on "Ideology in the Age of Global Discontent" for Routledge (2018).