Macroscope | In 2020, voters everywhere must reject policies that cut public spending only to enrich the wealthy
- When the neoliberal policies of old failed us, it has been the far right that seized on the public discontent to make political gains. But the solutions they offer are broken, and voters must demand public investments that actually benefit people
The year 2019 ended with widespread demonstrations, rising inequality and a crisis of representation in many countries. The world is sleepwalking towards recession and a new crisis, while depleting the environment. Governments, and ultimately people, can reverse these alarming trends in 2020.
Sixty-one countries will have presidential or parliamentary elections in 2020. Many citizens want change, and they will choose new parties as a way to achieve this.
This is an important opportunity to redress the current situation, but many of the new emerging leaders are far-right demagogues who blame today’s problems on social welfare policies, migrants and the poor, while aiming to remove all remaining constraints on capital. As in Britain, many whom neoliberalism has harmed will vote for these politicians, making the world a more unequal and riskier place.
A lot will be decided in the US, still the world’s hegemonic power. How US citizens vote in the 2020 presidential election will have profound consequences for the rest of the planet’s citizens.
US President Donald Trump has already had a big impact on the world, eroding multilateral institutions, trade agreements and global initiatives as part of his “America first” agenda. Despite the populist rhetoric, Americans in the main have benefited little. Trump’s large tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts to health care access, and increases in the US defence budget are regressive, resulting in increased inequality.
