What drives political change – culture or economics? The surge of the Right in the United States and Europe in the past two years has renewed debate on this important question. On one side, the cultural determinists attribute Donald Trump, Brexit and the rise of European populist movements to nativism, anti-immigrant sentiment and, in the American heartland, lingering racism. On the other side, economic determinists put the blame on economic inequalities and anxieties deriving from austerity policies, globalisation and deindustrialisation.
The trouble with this debate is that it is often not possible to disentangle the economic from the cultural causes. CONT.
Sharun Mukand (U. of Warwick) & Dani Rodrik (Harvard), Aeon