Jan-Werner Mueller for PS On Point: Mainstreaming the Far Right

Jan-Werner Mueller debunks the conventional wisdom about a bottom-up “populist wave” sweeping Western democracies. [View this message in a web browser]( [PS On Point]( OCTOBER 20, 2023 Polling makes clear that those who vote for illiberal, autocratic populist parties are a loud minority, not the silent majority. They are hardly capable of becoming an unstoppable political force without buy-in from complicit elites who ought to know better, writes Princeton University’s Jan-Werner Mueller. [Read more]( [PS Longer Reads: Mainstreaming the Far Right]( [Mainstreaming the Far Right]( By Jan-Werner Mueller After years of pundits insisting that Western countries are being swept by a "populist wave" of voters turning against liberal democracy, Poles have just handed their own illiberal, populist ruling party a stunning electoral defeat. It should now be clear that the problem all along has been elites, not "the people." [Read more]( [PS. Save 40% on a new Digital or Digital Plus subscription.]( [PS Say More: Dani Rodrik on protectionism, development, and more]( [Dani Rodrik on protectionism, development, and more]( Dani Rodrik identifies blind spots in mainstream economics, worries that the US-China rivalry will undermine “healthy” globalization, highlights flaws in prevailing approaches to free-trade agreements, and more. Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School, is President of the International Economic Association and the author of [Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy]( (Princeton University Press, 2017). [Read more]( [PS Insider Interview: Fear and Loathing in Poland]( [Fear and Loathing in Poland]( Agnieszka Holland interviewed by Irena Grudzińska Gross As in the past, refugees will be a key issue in Poland's election this month, because the ruling party wants it to be so. Law and Justice is betting that voters will succumb to their basest, most xenophobic instincts, rather than recognizing the parallels to one of the darkest periods in their country's history. [Read more]( [PS. Subscribe to PS Premium to secure your copy of PS Quarterly: Stayin’ Alive.]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. Receipt of this newsletter does not guarantee rights to re-publish any of its content. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.