, Columnist
The New Populism Isn't About Economics
Nationalist candidates are winning around the globe in growing economies. Another crisis is afoot.
Can help ease cultural anxieties.
Photographer: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Economic theories of populism are dead, we Americans just don’t know it yet. Over the past week, two countries have brought populists to power, but in both cases those places have been enjoying decent economic growth.
Andrej Babis’s party dominated the Czech national election Saturday, and he is almost certain to become the next prime minister. Babis has been described as “the anti-establishment businessman pledging to fight political corruption while facing fraud charges himself” -- sound familiar? Yet in 2015, the Czech Republic had the European Union’s fastest growth rate at more than 4 percent; earlier this year, it was growing at 2.9 percent, with potential seen on the upside.