Monday, October 15, 2018

Book and article on progressive populism

Here's the book and here's the author talking about it. Therein the notion of 'post-politics' is seen as capitulation to neoliberal globalization, which sounds a lot like the 'conscious capitalism' of some integralists with their post-everything. Some excerpts:

"The challenge of rightwing populism will not be met by stubbornly upholding the post-political consensus. It cannot be formulated through the left/right cleavage, as traditionally configured. [...] To bring these diverse struggles together requires establishing a bond between social movements and a new type of party to create a 'people' fighting for equality and social justice. [...] This is the political strategy that I call 'left populism'. Its purpose is the construction of a collective will, a 'people' whose adversary is the 'oligarchy', the force that sustains the neoliberal order. We find such a political strategy in [...] Bernie Sanders in the US."

"Their goal is to recover and deepen democratic institutions. This strategy will take different forms: it could be called 'democratic socialism', 'eco-socialism', 'liberal socialism' or 'participatory democracy', depending on the different national context. But what is important, whatever the name, is that 'democracy' is the signifier around which these struggles are articulated, and that political liberal institutions are not discarded."
 

"The process of radicalising democratic institutions will no doubt include moments of rupture and a confrontation with the dominant economic interests. It is a radical reformist strategy with an anti-capitalist dimension, but does not require relinquishing liberal democratic institutions."

"I am convinced that in the next few years the central axis of the political conflict will be between rightwing populism and leftwing populism, and it is imperative that progressive sectors understand the importance of involving themselves in that struggle."



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