In many Western democracies, the rise of populism has coincided with the collapse of traditional center-left parties, as working-class voters shift their allegiance, argues William A. Galston, senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and the author of “Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy.”
In the United States, Democratic Party strategists debate whether regaining the support of these voters would come at too high a price and that the best hope for the future lies in the coalition of minority groups and educated professionals, he writes for the Washington Post.
But liberal democracy cannot be healthy if groups of embittered citizens are left with no alternative to irresponsible appeals, adds Galston, a former board member of the National Endowment for Democracy.
