Why has there been such a rise in hostility towards so-called global elites? From the UK's vote to leave the European Union to the election of Donald Trump in the US, populist leaders claim they are responding to the growing number of voters who feel disenchanted and disenfranchised: frustrated that their views on globalization, immigration and terrorism don’t seem to count.
Do they have a point, or are they being manipulated? Have the political elite found the right response?
It’s a debate that began in 2016, and will continue as we live through the elections coming up in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy.
The populist movement
Donald Trump has said that we are seeing a populist movement like never before. Is he right, asks BBC News Presenter Zeinab Badawi.
“No question,” answers Eric Cantor, former Congressman and currently Vice-Chairman, Managing Director and Member of the Board of Directors at Moelis & Company, referring to the current political climate in America. “It’s a mix of discombobulated feeling among voters, economic change, technological change, a lot of social change in our country, and a sense that the governing class has all gotten it all wrong, that’s what has put Donald Trump into the fore,” he says.
Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister in Belgium agrees that we are currently living in a world where a lot of things have changed, and by things we haven't seen before - social media, migration and refugee flows, technological change - and that this has had an enormous impact on a lot of lives. He also says that, while you can’t compare Brexit to the US election, the underlying theme of anxiety about a world that is changing is the same.
Dominic Raab, a UK MP and campaigner for Brexit, disagrees, and says that it’s easy and lazy to call what happened in the US and in Britain a homogenous movement: “I don’t think the situation in the US or the answers that the Brexit campaign threw up are the same for the French election or for the upcoming election in Germany,” he explains.
But Alexander De Croo says that there is some similarity in all the campaigns, and that one way or another they are legitimising the sort of language that leads to outbursts of racism. “The question is, he says, who are you legitimising?”
Eric Cantor also believes that there is a common theme to all the political upheaval we are seeing - a lack of confidence in the governing class. He says that he himself has been a victim of this line of thinking.
Populist movements define themselves as outsiders, asserts author and political commentator Elif Shafak, and attack the political system, but they themselves are part of that same system she argues.
Project Fear
Fear plays at the heart of the populist movements, argue some members of the panel.
The debate that played out in Britain regarding Brexit was one of project hope and project fear, claims Dominic Raab, and Alexander De Croo says that this is what populist movements are doing: “using fear and identity as tools, the combination of the two is very toxic. It always ends up with saying the other ones are the bad ones and we are the good ones, and this is what is coming out in these campaigns, you are legitimising certain racist groups, even if not directly,” he argues.
But Eric Cantor asserts that Donald Trump has been quick to disassociate himself with any groups that advocate racism.
Elif Shafak says that, whilst she understands why populations have worries about immigrants or refugees, it’s not OK to be guided by fear.
Elites need to listen
Dominic Raab says that the elite needs to listen to the general population, or there will be consequences.
But Elif Shafak asks who are we talking about when we talk about “real people”?
Alexander De Croo says that all politicians could carry the same message as the populist movement has, they just have to find the right language.
Resistance to the ugliness of the populist movement
A question from the audience prompted the panel to answer why they hadn’t fought more vociferously about some of the uglier parts of the populist campaigning.
Dominic Raab said that he had been very clear about where the boundaries lay and who he would and wouldn’t align himself with, “you can’t shut voices out,” he says, "but you can be clear about where you stand.”
Eric Cantor says he was the first to stand up against some of the language that Donald Trump used, particularly his claim that he would ban all muslims from entering America: “I said that’s not America,” he says. “It has been a very frustrating time for all of us. How do you respond to something like that? All we can do is speak out if there is injustice. Donald Trump was so out there in terms of his expression, and that’s what attracted people who had never been involved in politics before.”
That element of divisiveness is a political strategy, says Alexander De Croo, and whilst he doesn’t agree with it, everyone is free to use whatever strategy they like. “But we have to be clear on rules,” he adds. “Such as no discrimination and equality of changes.”
You can’t put all everyone in the same boat, however, cautions Dominic.
Experts know nothing and social media is bad
Elif Sharak points out that no one saw the Arab Spring coming, no one saw Brexit happening, and so many people said that Donald Trump as President would never happen.
“The feeling on part of many people is that experts don’t know anything,” she says. “I myself am critical of experts who live in bubbles, but the problem is that we are moving into a direction where knowledge itself is being underestimated, it’s an anti-knowledge movement.”
Indeed, the influence of social media is unhealthy, argues Eric Cantor.
“The populist wave has been built on wrong assumptions and people’s inability to filter what’s on social media. We have to get used to it, but how do we ensure that the facts are out there?" he asks.
But Dominic Raab says we mustn’t think that opinions on social media represent the population at large.
De Croo argues that it’s not about fake news, it’s about fake arguments that the populist movements are peddling.
Populism is a continuing story
The panel all agreed that this was an ongoing issue for the modern world.
“Globalization and trade should be something good for the people, some of the trade flows are not good for the people, we need trade based on a fair playing field," argues De Croo.
“We are far too globalised to separate from each other,” argues Shafak. “In a world that has witnessed 9/11 and transnational terrorism, we are all in this together. We are world citizens."
Dominic Raab argues that “we all have to take responsibility” for the world we live in.
But De Croo sums up the general mood: