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Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies
Recent elections in the advanced western democracies have undermined the basic foundations of political systems that had previously beaten back all challenges -- from both the left and the right. The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, only months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, signaled a dramatic shift in the politics of the rich democracies.
In Anti-System Politics , Jonathan Hopkin traces the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the post-war model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. That shift entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solutions to economic hardship. Electorates demanded change, and it had to come from outside the system. Using a comparative approach, Hopkin explains why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges. Finally, he discusses the implications of these changes, arguing that the only way for mainstream political forces to survive is for them to embrace a more activist role for government in
protecting societies from economic turbulence.
A historically-grounded analysis of arguably the most important global political phenomenon at present, Anti-System Politics illuminates how and why the world seems upside down.
In Anti-System Politics , Jonathan Hopkin traces the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the post-war model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. That shift entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solutions to economic hardship. Electorates demanded change, and it had to come from outside the system. Using a comparative approach, Hopkin explains why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges. Finally, he discusses the implications of these changes, arguing that the only way for mainstream political forces to survive is for them to embrace a more activist role for government in
protecting societies from economic turbulence.
A historically-grounded analysis of arguably the most important global political phenomenon at present, Anti-System Politics illuminates how and why the world seems upside down.
331 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 23, 2022
Nuanced perspective on 'alt' politics which uses economics to explain movements ranging from Sanders to Brexit. GDP growth since 1971 has been restricted to the most well-educated and wealthy of western societies, whereas the living conditions of the every-man have declined. 'Left' and 'right' parties in the west have basically agreed entirely on economic policy for the past thirty years, including the Democrats and Republicans, and Tories and Labour in the USA and UK respectively. Anti-system movements which broke through the system did so on the back of promises of reforming the free market to serve the people. Simple to read, well researched, utterly crucial to understand the issues of the 21st century.
March 23, 2025
Trying to understand the whole Trump and MAGA thing is difficult for me. I feel I need an understanding that is not about the person Trump but about the yearslong trend is far-right "populist" leaders. This book is the first one I recall that offers some coherent vision on that. I came across the book mentioned in "The Difference That Matters Most Isn’t Between Left and Right" from The Nation.
The author connects such disrupters as Trump, Brexit, and Berlusconi, the Italian media tycoon who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments as part of an anti-establishment movement seeking from both the left (remember the Occupy movement?) and right (MAGA, etc.) spring from the International Debt Crisis of the late aughts
* USCCB on that event
* The Global Financial Crisis | Explainer | Education | RBA
After reading this book, I took in Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won | The Ezra Klein Show and found the book's points surfacing in they survey data analyzed there. From the transcript:
The author connects such disrupters as Trump, Brexit, and Berlusconi, the Italian media tycoon who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments as part of an anti-establishment movement seeking from both the left (remember the Occupy movement?) and right (MAGA, etc.) spring from the International Debt Crisis of the late aughts
* USCCB on that event
* The Global Financial Crisis | Explainer | Education | RBA
After reading this book, I took in Democrats Need to Face Why Trump Won | The Ezra Klein Show and found the book's points surfacing in they survey data analyzed there. From the transcript:
uh I have a couple more slides I want to go through I talked about this before but voters cared a lot more about
49:08
delivering change than preserving institutions and then we have this other polling question here which I think is
49:13
interesting which is just you know asking people to pick between the statements you know things could be going better in America uh but what what
49:20
we need is a return to basic stability and the other is things in America are going poorly and what's needed is a
49:27
major change and a shock to the system...
May 17, 2020
This is worth a read. The author is convincing that most of the political upheaval we've witnessed in the western world in the last decade can be traced to inequality produced by the market economy (duh) -- and more interestingly, that support for a neoliberal market economy became the consensus approach - across all parties - to such a degree that all recent extremist political movements are different attempts to seek a different approach to economic policy.
Unfortunately, most of the book is simply rehashing this through different examples. It's standard comparative political science fare, and the arguments are sound, but reading the introduction will likely get you most of the information you need here.
And a minor gripe - the charts are infuriating! There's so little visual contrast between lines that it is often impossible to determine which corresponds to what. Publishers - do better!
Unfortunately, most of the book is simply rehashing this through different examples. It's standard comparative political science fare, and the arguments are sound, but reading the introduction will likely get you most of the information you need here.
And a minor gripe - the charts are infuriating! There's so little visual contrast between lines that it is often impossible to determine which corresponds to what. Publishers - do better!
June 8, 2021
Hopkin is a professor of International Relations @ LSE, and he knows his subject matter. I turned to this title to get a better appreciation of the transformative change in political preferences since 2008. The book delivers an impressive array of facts and figures from countries as diverse as Italy, Spain, the UK, the US and Greece. Many academics have analyzed income and wealth inequality & Hopkin extends this to consider unionization. One minor quibble I have is with the layout of the print edition, The figures are so tiny they are difficult to read! I have recommended this title to friends and I am happy to see other readers agree with me.
October 13, 2020
Interesting discussion and hypothesis about the nature of populism, sorry, anti-system... ism. What caught my attention was the (many times!) repeated unsubstantiated claim that supporters of populist, er, anti-system parties are definitely not against immigrants, definitely. Because the author just doesn't believe it. How about if it quacks like a duck, claims to be a duck, produces a sworn statement from a ornithologist that it's a duck and has has duck DNA we should consider it is in fact a duck. Even if we think a swan would be the more appropriate kind of bird for it to be.
Otherwise it's not that controversial that politics has become professional and all established parties came closer together leaving people no real choice resulting in support for anyone not in the centre.
Otherwise it's not that controversial that politics has become professional and all established parties came closer together leaving people no real choice resulting in support for anyone not in the centre.
May 22, 2021
FANTASTIC! This a very well researched and written study about the rise of anti-system politics in rich democracies across the globe. Highly recommend for anyone even slightly interested in politics.
June 5, 2022
An old man feeling the claws of fear in his back: it used to be his caste to decide ”democracy” and now it seems that the people are making the choice. And that has to stop.
January 3, 2025
Less words could have given the same message but I also appreciate that Hopkin is a little silly the whole time
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews