Philosophical Apprentice comments.
It doesn’t quite occur to Mr. Ganesh that his argued commonalities, between European and American ‘Populism’ might be the product of an utterly failed Neo-Liberal Model, that ruled the West from Thatcher/Reagan era, to its tattered remains in the political present? Or perhaps that is the point of Ganesh intervention, in sum misdirection.
At the next general election, British voters will return either a centre-right government or a centre-left one. For comparison, the spread of plausible outcomes in the US includes a second term of Donald Trump. In France? A Rassemblement National president. The Netherlands? After last week’s election, power for the hardline Geert Wilders. As for the Italian far right, power is theirs already, while the German equivalents threaten to break through in the federal elections of 2025.
The first paragraph is alive with Historical Re-Writes, in the disguise of predictions, speculations, possibilities. The first paragraph is awash in political mendacity, as Ganesh is a ‘stylist’ , not a political thinker! Centre-right and centre left are political fictions of the political moment, not the reflection of a British Politics, but about the surrender of both Parties to the Neo-Liberal Toxin. Not to speak of an utterly bankrupt political class, composed of the afore mentioned Centre-right and centre left. Ganesh’s opening paragraph informs the reader of the European territory of his essay. If Mr. Ganesh were an honest political thinker, writer he might have resorted to Philipp Ther’s revelatory history : Europe since 1989: A History ?
Chapter 4 : Getting on the Neo-Liberal Band Wagon: 77
Milestones of the Transformation 49
The Bumpy Road of Reforms in Eastern Europe 79
Neo-Liberalism’s Inherent Problems 95
A Topology of Reform Outcomes 102
Chapter 5 : Second -Wave Neo-Liberalism 112
Neo-Liberalism at Full Speed 112
Flat Tax Systems and Populism 115
Human Capital 120
New Wealth 126
Rich Cities, Poor Regions 132
The EU’s Marshall Plan for the East 144
Chapter 7
The Great Recession : 2000-9 and its Consequences 209
The End of of Economic Convergence? 209
Variation of Crises 217
Predatory Lending in Central and Eastern Europe 221
Political Reactions : Between Neo-Liberalism and Authoritarianism 226
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167374/europe-since-1989
The title and sub-title of the Ganesh essay presents a non-issue to his readership, as if it were telling, the first instance of his attempt at mis-direction?
American and European populism aren’t the same
The US variant is much more of a personality cult
https://www.ft.com/content/4f50f23a-ce1d-4778-91aa-ebebca1d61d3
These two paragraphs in Ganesh essay identifies his possible dissenters to be ‘some liberals’ and the fact that Britain is ‘a relative haven from populism’ . In the Neo-Liberal Mythology isn’t ‘Brexit’ the unpardonable sin against its Free Market Collectivism, as it evolved from its roots, in the Coal and Steel Cartel of Jean Monnet?
And so, as difficult as this is for some liberals to hear, Britain is now a relative haven from populism. Brexit set that cause back by allowing voters to release much of their pent-up anger, and by flopping badly enough to put them off another rightwing experiment. When enough time has passed, even some Remainers might decide that the hit to national output was worth the period of domestic civic peace. As bad as Britain is at high-speed rail and IPOs, I’d rather take my chances here than in many western democracies over the coming years, thanks.
Another thing about the UK: it is a good place from which to compare American and European populism. So often conflated with each other, it is the differences between them that stand out ever more to an observer in this in-between place.
……
On American Populism:
In contrast, we still don’t know what American populism amounts to without the elemental personal force of Trump. Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis are among those who have tried to offer Republican voters at least the gist of Trumpism. Both have flopped. Vivek Ramaswamy, who is well to the right of the 45th president, doesn’t have people swooning in the prairies. For a sense of how person- rather than idea-centred US populism has become, ask yourself: if Trump proposed a truce with China, or embraced green taxes, or even softened his line on immigration somewhat, how much of his core support would he lose?
Mr. Ganesh cultivated ignorance of the Americas Populist Tradition, is inexcusable! Ganesh’s view is myopic, a-historical, self-serving: the ready to hand of Republican specimens, of that current expression of Tea Party hysterics, winnowed by political time, are useful props. Actual History has intrinsic value, as a check on mere newspaper opinionating!
STATE AND CORPORATION IN AMERICAN POPULIST POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, 1877–1902
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2020
Abstract
This article examines the political theory of the late nineteenth-century American Populist movement, with a particular focus on its theories of state and corporation. Recent scholarship on populism has tended to present the phenomenon as a variant of direct democracy intrinsically opposed to intermediary bodies, a feature consistently traced back to American Populism as well. In this account, American Populists opposed new discourses of corporate personhood and free incorporation in the late nineteenth century owing to their tendency to distort natural bonds between peoples and leaders and to disperse the popular will. This article questions the tenability of this opposition through a close contextual engagement with original Populist texts. As the first self-declared ‘populist’ movement in modern history, Populists theorized about the usage of corporate personality for their own co-operatives and put forward ambitious visions of American statecraft, breaking with the proprietary individualism that characterized Jeffersonian agrarianism before. The article focuses on two particular genres of Populist thinking: first, their advocacy of the corporate form for their co-operative farm organizing and, secondly, a specifically statutory vision of state reform. It concludes with reflections on how these findings destabilize assumptions governing the current populism debate in political theory and American historiography.
Ganesh Opines: ‘European populism is much less of a personality cult.’ he names the culprits: Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie, Jordan Bardella, Giorgia Meloni, Silvio Berlusconi, Wilders.
Ganesh Opines : In contrast, we still don’t know what American populism amounts to without the elemental personal force of Trump. Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy,
The patient Reader will note that there are 344 words remaining of the essay, interpretation, speculation, tinctured in self-serving free imaginative variation, masquerading as a series vital questions. The point of arrival of the essay is not a reward for the Reader!
In which half of the west is liberalism more vulnerable: the US or Europe? Well, the raw individual clout of Trump unites and fuels America’s hard right. What serves the equivalent role in Europe is a sense of demographic and cultural siege. The difference is that Trump will one day be gone.
Philosophical Apprentice
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