Francis Fukuyama
We are delighted to feature Francis Fukuyama in the pages of Persuasion once again. Some of you may not know that he writes a regular column, “Frankly Fukuyama,” which is proudly part of the Persuasion family, and which you need to manually opt in to receive.
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Ever since the year 2016, when Britain voted for Brexit and Trump was elected president, social scientists, journalists, pundits, and almost everyone else have been trying to explain the rise of global populism. There has been a standard list of causes:
Economic inequality brought on by globalization and neoliberal policies.
Racism, nativism, and religious bigotry on the part of populations that have been losing status.
Broad sociological changes that have sorted people by education and residence, and resentment at the dominance of elites and experts.
The special talents of individual demagogues like Donald Trump.
The failures of mainstream political parties to deliver growth, jobs, security, and infrastructure.
Dislike or hatred of the progressive Left’s cultural agenda.
Failures of leadership of the progressive Left.
Human nature and our proclivities towards violence, hatred, and exclusion.
Social media and the internet.
I myself have contributed to this literature, and like everyone else ticked off cause #9, social media and the internet, as one of the contributing factors. However, after pondering these questions for nearly a decade, I have come to conclude that technology broadly and the internet in particular stand out as the most salient explanations for why global populism has arisen in this particular historical period, and why it has taken the particular form that it has.
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