A Comeuppance for Populism?
If populism defined Western politics in 2016, do British Prime Minister Theresa May’s election flop, US President Donald Trump’s deepening legal trouble, and Emmanuel Macron’s makeover of French politics signal that an equal and opposite force has emerged in 2017? Perhaps – or perhaps that is the wrong question.
Niccolò Machiavelli believed that one could become a prince “by prowess or by fortune.” In the second case, a leader assumes power “with little exertion on their own part; but subsequently they maintain their position only by considerable exertion.”