Anti-System Politics

For anyone interested in understanding the current malaise in most democracies, this book is indispensable reading. Hopkin presents a very promising alternative to the current focus on 'populism' for explaining the increasing electoral success of political parties that challenges the established political order both from the left and the right. The argument that this fundamental shift is located in structural changes in the economy and not so much in cultural factors such as rising xenophobia is very convincing. -- Bo Rothstein, August R hss Chair in Political Science, University of Gothenburg Much scholarly 'strum und drang' has resulted from the 'populism is cultural' versus 'populism is economic' debate. Jonathan Hopkin provides us with an elegant solution to this conundrum - both sides get it wrong. In Hopkin's view what we are trying to explain is not populism. Rather, it's a distinct Anti-System Politics that has deep roots in the dysfunctions of post war party systems and their inability to the steer political economies that they govern in the neoliberal era. -- Mark Blyth, The William R. Rhodes '57 Professor of International Economics, Brown University No topic could be as important as the rise of anti-system parties in the US and Europe today, and no scholar better equipped than Jonathan Hopkin to explain the backlash against mainstream parties' failures to respond to citizens' discontent with 'neo-liberal democracy.' A ground-breaking book that explains not only how economic hardship and inequality have spurred the successes of the political extremes everywhere but also why this has played out so differently in rich democracies, depending on their social, political, and economic institutions. -- Vivien A. Schmidt, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University