Are Trade Shocks to Blame for Our Extremist Politics?

Researchers Hunt for the Missing Link Between Import Imbalances and Populist Anger

Does economic competition from low-wage manufacturing countries like China make politics in Western countries more polarized?

The short answer is yes. The harder, unanswered question is: How, exactly?

A body of research including our own papers shows overwhelming evidence that, over the last 20 years or so, trade integration with low-wage manufacturing countries like China has had dramatic effects on the manufacturing landscape in rich countries like the United States and Germany.

It also appears this growing trade exposure is to blame, at least in part, for growing political polarization and increasing …

By Christian Dippel, Robert Gold, Stephan Heblich, and Rodrigo Pinto | April 26, 2017

VIDEO: Is Fighting Populist Anger a Losing Battle?

A Philosopher, Armed With "Crazy Optimism," Lays Out His Three-Front Counter-Attack

November 28, 2016

Populist anger is shaking the world, epitomized by the U.K.’s vote to “Brexit” the EU and even the election of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. In the U.S., …

Brexit Is Spelled T-R-U-M-P in America

A Hatred of Outsiders Unites Anti-Globalizers Around the World

By Philippa Levine | October 31, 2016

Donald Trump is America’s Brexit. Whoever wins the presidential election, Trump’s candidacy has made possible a level of public incivility that we’ve not seen in this country for many years. …

How Latin America Emerged from Its Populist Decade

A New Generation of Technocrats Is Embracing Rational Orthodoxy Over Ideology

By Jana Nelson | October 31, 2016

There’s hope to the south.

As Europe and the United States are grappling with the rise of bombastic populism, the region that’s long excelled in the genre above all others—Trump …

Much Like Alcohol, Democracy Is Best in Moderation

Representative Governments Protect the Public from Its Own Ignorance

By Jason Brennan | October 31, 2016

The open secret of democracy is that it works because it doesn’t quite work as advertised. Representative democracies do not simply impose the will of the people. They over-perform, producing …

The Shame of Living in an Authoritarian Democracy

In Hungary, Nationalist Politicians Help Themselves (and Their Lovers) to the Spoils of Power

By Csaba Madarasz | October 31, 2016

I was a young man studying journalism when conversation about the first Fidesz government in Hungary broke into our dining room. It ended with a dead political silence in my …

Populism