At least in the Anglosphere: the parties of the Right represent the leaders of corporations- the Oligarchs; the parties of the so-called Left represent the PMC (Professional Managerial Class), that portion of officers of the public service, academia & NGO's that have influence over public policy & discretionary power in the allocation of resources. Peter Turchin cleverly describes these rhetorically as the 1% and the 10%. Increasingly these two have merged within the formerly Left parties- the Democrats, the Labour parties of the UK, Australia & New Zealand etc. creating a political entity that ironically the hard Right styles as 'Communism', since the collusion of corporate and bureaucratic power is superficially reminiscent of the situation in China. Thus we have a largely binary structure where, on the one hand Oligarchs are represented as being in opposition to PMC power, on the other they are represented as in league with it.
Note that nowhere in this schema is the rhetorical 89% represented- the owners of small-to-medium businesses, the working class and the lower and middle managers in both public and private sectors. These groups make up the corpus of electoral support for all political parties yet are entirely outside of the core constituencies whose interests are represented. At best they get thrown the occasional bone- traditionally tax-cuts from the Right and social security provisions from the Left. However the parties became increasingly obsessed with alternative views of social justice- the so-called 'woke' agenda- which the Right was initially happy to passively accept since it projected a 'non-class, non-economic' view of progressiveness. However, once a backlash was initiated- primarily by the 'freedom' activism that followed Covid lockdowns, The Right picked this up as a 'point of difference' to the Left and has successfully created a strong far-Right counter to the mainstream everywhere, & routed the Left in the USA and New Zealand elections. The Left, as the initiator of the non-class view of social justice, declines to respond appropriately to the latest turns of the political wheel since it runs counter to the PMC interests of maintaining the Left parties as their power-base.
Nowhere in the political spectrum are the owners of small-to-medium businesses, the working class and lower and middle managers truly represented. Are you then surprised there is no 'trust' from the '89%'
Great analysis, thanks Kevin! I note you refer to Turchin. Musa al-Gharbi's 'We have never been woke' is getting good reviews, I believe. I've only read the intro to it so far. Cheers.
At least in the Anglosphere: the parties of the Right represent the leaders of corporations- the Oligarchs; the parties of the so-called Left represent the PMC (Professional Managerial Class), that portion of officers of the public service, academia & NGO's that have influence over public policy & discretionary power in the allocation of resources. Peter Turchin cleverly describes these rhetorically as the 1% and the 10%. Increasingly these two have merged within the formerly Left parties- the Democrats, the Labour parties of the UK, Australia & New Zealand etc. creating a political entity that ironically the hard Right styles as 'Communism', since the collusion of corporate and bureaucratic power is superficially reminiscent of the situation in China. Thus we have a largely binary structure where, on the one hand Oligarchs are represented as being in opposition to PMC power, on the other they are represented as in league with it.
Note that nowhere in this schema is the rhetorical 89% represented- the owners of small-to-medium businesses, the working class and the lower and middle managers in both public and private sectors. These groups make up the corpus of electoral support for all political parties yet are entirely outside of the core constituencies whose interests are represented. At best they get thrown the occasional bone- traditionally tax-cuts from the Right and social security provisions from the Left. However the parties became increasingly obsessed with alternative views of social justice- the so-called 'woke' agenda- which the Right was initially happy to passively accept since it projected a 'non-class, non-economic' view of progressiveness. However, once a backlash was initiated- primarily by the 'freedom' activism that followed Covid lockdowns, The Right picked this up as a 'point of difference' to the Left and has successfully created a strong far-Right counter to the mainstream everywhere, & routed the Left in the USA and New Zealand elections. The Left, as the initiator of the non-class view of social justice, declines to respond appropriately to the latest turns of the political wheel since it runs counter to the PMC interests of maintaining the Left parties as their power-base.
Nowhere in the political spectrum are the owners of small-to-medium businesses, the working class and lower and middle managers truly represented. Are you then surprised there is no 'trust' from the '89%'
Great analysis, thanks Kevin! I note you refer to Turchin. Musa al-Gharbi's 'We have never been woke' is getting good reviews, I believe. I've only read the intro to it so far. Cheers.