ABSTRACT
The growth of ‘populist’ electoral backlashes following the world recession, which caused wages to stagnate while corporate wealth soared, was reflected in several other Western countries: the Polish Law and Justice Party; Front Nationale in France; Progress Party in Norway; Sweden Democrats; Alternative fur Deutschland; Italy’s Northern League; and 68.3% for Hungary’s right-wing Victor Orban in 2018. Marxists argue that ‘democracy’ in capitalist countries is the thinnest of window dressings disguising corporate control. A number of ostensibly democratic nations have slipped into questionable practices regarding their political systems. Erdogan in Turkey used an attempted coup in July 2016 as an excuse to crack down and imprison hundreds of journalists and others perceived as his political opponents. A major factor in Trump’s success has been a strong fear within some sections of voters that liberal politicians aid and abet multinational organisations in encouraging immigration while ‘politically correct’ thinking seeks to silence any opposition.
