🔗 Share this article

The Reform UK leader depicts his Reform UK party as a distinct occurrence that has exploded on to the global stage, its meteoric rise an exceptional historic moment. But this week, in every one of the continent's leading countries and from India and Thailand to the US and Argentina, far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties like his are also leading in the public surveys.

In last Saturday’s Czech elections, the rightwing, pro-Putin populist Andrej Babiš overthrew prime minister Petr Fiala. A French political group, which has just brought down yet another France's leader, is ahead the polls for both the presidential race and the legislature. In the German nation, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is currently the most popular party. A Hungarian political force, Slovakia's governing alliance and the Italian political group are already in government, while the Freedom party of Austria (FPÖ), the Dutch PVV and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang – all hardline nationalists – are part of an global alliance of opponents of global cooperation, inspired by far-right propagandists like Steve Bannon, aiming to overthrow the global legal order, diminish fundamental freedoms and destroy multilateral cooperation.

The Populist Nationalist Surge

The populist nationalist surge exposes a new and unavoidable truth that supporters of democracy overlook at great risk: an authoritarian ethnic nationalism – once thought defeated with the Berlin Wall – has supplanted neoliberalism as the leading belief system of our age, giving us a world of firsts: “America first”, “India first”, “China first”, “Russian primacy”, “group priority” and often “my tribe first and only” regimes. It is this ethnic nationalism that helps explain why the world is now composed of 91 autocracies and only 88 democracies, and ethnic nationalism is the driver behind the violations of international human rights law not just by one nation in conflict but in almost every one of the world’s 59 cross-border conflicts and civil wars.

Understanding the Underlying Forces

It is important to understand the underlying forces, common to almost every country, that have driven this new age of nationalism. It begins with a broadly shared perception that a globalization that was accessible yet exclusionary has been a free for all that has not been fair to all.

Over the past ten years, political figures have not only been slow to respond to the millions who feel excluded and left behind, but also to the changing balance of global economic power, moving us from a unipolar world once dominated by the US to a multi-power landscape of rival major nations, and from a rules-based order to a might-makes-right approach. The ethnic nationalism that this has provoked means free trade is giving way to trade barriers. Where market forces used to drive government policies, the nationalist agendas is now driving economic decisions, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies characterized by bringing production home and ally-focused trade and by restrictions on cross-border trade, foreign funding and technology transfer, sinking international cooperation to its weakest point since the post-war period.

Hope in Global Public Sentiment

However, there is hope. The situation is not fixed, and even as it hardens we can see optimism in the common sense of the global public. In a recent survey for a prominent organization, of 36,000 people in 34 countries we find a clear majority are more resistant to an exclusionary nationalism and more inclined to support international cooperation than many of the leaders who govern them.

Globally there is, maybe unexpectedly, only a small group of hardened anti-internationalists representing a minority of the world's people (even if a quarter in today’s US) who either feel coexistence between ethnic and religious groups is impossible or have a win-lose perspective that if they or their country do well, it has to be at the cost of others doing badly.

But there are another 21% at the opposite extreme, whom we might call committed internationalists, who either still see cooperation across borders through open trade as a mutually beneficial arrangement, or are what a prominent philosopher calls “locally engaged global citizens”.

Worldwide Public Position

The vast majority of the world's citizens are somewhere in between: not narrow, inward-looking nationalists, as “America first” ideology would suggest, or all-in cosmopolitans. They are patriotic but don’t see the world as in a permanent conflict between the “our side” and the “them”, adversaries always divided from each other in an unbridgeable divide.

Do the majority in the middle favor a duty-free or a responsible global community? Are they willing to accept obligations beyond their local area or city wall? Yes, under specific circumstances. A first group, 22%, will support aid efforts to relieve suffering and are prepared to act out of altruism, backing disaster relief for disaster zones. Those we might call “good cause” cooperation advocates feel the pain of others and have faith in something larger than their own interests.

A second group comprising a similar percentage are practical cooperators who want to know that any taxes paid for international development are used effectively. And there is a third group, 21%, self-interested multilateralists, who will endorse teamwork if they can see that it benefits them and their communities, whether it be through ensuring them food on the table or peace and security.

Building a Cooperative Majority

Thus a definite majority can be built not just for emergency assistance if funds are used wisely but also for global action to deal with global problems, like environmental emergency and pandemic prevention, as long as this argument is argued on grounds of wise personal benefit, and if we stress the mutual advantages that flow to them and their own country. And thus for those who have long wondered whether we work together from necessity or if we have a need to cooperate, the answer is both.

This willingness to work internationally shows how we can turn back the xenophobic tide: we can overcome today’s negative, inward-looking and often forceful and controlling nationalism that demonises newcomers, outsiders and “different groups” as long as we advocate for a positive, globally engaged and inclusive national pride that responds to people’s desire to belong and resonates with their everyday worries.

Addressing Public Concerns

And while detailed surveys tell us that across the Western nations, illegal immigration is currently the biggest national issue – and it's clear that it must quickly be managed effectively – the public sentiment data also tell us that the public are even more worried by what is happening in their personal circumstances and within their immediate neighborhoods. Last month, a prominent leader spoke movingly about how what’s good about Britain can overcome what’s bad, doing so precisely because in most western countries, “broken” and “deteriorating” are the words people have for years most commonly cited when asked about both our economy and community.

However, as the leader also pointed out, the far right is more interested in using complaints than ending them. Nigel Farage hailed a ill-fated economic plan as “an excellent fiscal policy” since 1986. But he would also implement a similar plan – what was intended – the biggest ever cuts in public services. Reform’s plan to reduce public spending by a huge sum would not repair struggling areas but damage them, turn citizen against citizen and wreck any sense of unity. Under a far-right government, you will not be able to afford to be sick, impaired, needy or at-risk. Every day from now on, and in every constituency, the party should be asked which hospital, which school and which government service will be the first to be cut or shut down.

The Stakes and the Alternative

“This ideology” is economic theory at its most cruel, more destructive even than monetarism, and spiteful far beyond fiscal restraint. What the public are indicating all over the Western world is that they want their governments to restore our financial systems and our communities. “The party” and its global allies should be revealed day after day for policies that would devastate both. And for those of us who believe our best days could be ahead of us, we can go beyond highlighting Reform’s hypocrisy by setting out a argument for a improved nation that resonates not just to visionaries, but to realists, to self-interest, and to the everyday compassion of the nation's citizens.