Does the rise of populism on both side of the Atlantic endanger the concept of international order?<\/p>\n
Populism has left its mark on the face of international politics as of late. The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the rise of Marine La Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the coming to power of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungry and of former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Poland and of course the election of Donald Trump in the United States have shaken the political structures of the industrialized world.<\/p>\n
Populism, sometimes called right-wing populism in the press, presents itself as an ally of the common man against forces he can\u2019t control and it isn\u2019t always in line with a free-market agenda voiced by conservative ideologues. During his presidential campaign, President Trump slammed corporations for moving jobs overseas and free trade deals such as NAFTA for promoting this trend. LaPen holds similar views on trade.<\/p>\n
Populism tends to support portions of the welfare state. President Trump opposes privatizing Social Security and Medicare and Nigel Farage, former leader of the right-wing populist U.K. Independence Party, wanted to use the money saved from exiting the E.U. to beef up funding for the National Health Service. In France, La Pen has voiced opposition to privatization of her country\u2019s pension system and post office.<\/p>\n
Right-wing populism also holds a dim view of the institutions of liberal democracy and of international alliances. When Orban rose to power in Hungry in 2010, he destroyed the country\u2019s systems of checks and balances, changed the electoral code to ensure the Fidesz party\u2019s continued dominance and also ignored the E.U.\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n
The E.U. has served as a promoter of democracy and rule of law in the region, as countries must have a democratic system of government to join. The expansion of the union into Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans helped spread liberal democracy in the region. The E.U. founders\u2019 dream \u2013 a stable Europe connected through nation-to-nation ties – has succeeded in some respects. But the refugee and Eurozone crisis and the rise of populism presents a challenge.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., Trump has treated the press, a critical part of liberal democracy, like an occupying power and frightened N.A.T.O allies by questioning our commitment to the organization. Also, Trump has called the U.N. \u201ca club for people to get together and have a good time\u201d and has halted funding of the U.N. Population Program.<\/p>\n
International law is supported by international institutions like the U.N., forums where individual national states decide lawful from unlawful behavior and enforce these laws. Through these forums and laws we build what international relations theorist Hedley Bull calls a \u201csociety of states,\u201d or a system of states able to cooperate on certain issues and keep a more peaceful world. When nation\u2019s corporate in the enforcing of international law and peace, it takes pressure off of each nation to spend more on defense.<\/p>\n
The trend of populism militates against Bull\u2019s \u201csociety of states.\u201d And if certain states step outside law making and enforcement bodies, then conflict could arise in turn create a push for more defense expenditures. More defense expenditures can put pressure on other items the government funds \u2013 education, infrastructure, social insurance and scientific research.<\/p>\n
The defeat of Wilders in a recent election for prime minister in The Netherlands and the rise of a vibrant anti-Trump movement in the U.S. could mean that right-wing populism\u2019s tide is fading. However, it\u2019s up to those who believe in a \u201csociety of states\u201d to resist these movements.<\/p>\n
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Does the rise of populism on both side of the Atlantic endanger the concept of international order? Populism has left its mark on the face of international politics as of late. The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the rise of Marine La Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6864,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5073\/revisions\/6864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}