Western democracies are at breaking point. Feeling they are no longer adequately represented by ‘mainstream’ parties and politicians, significant portions of the electorate are moving to the extremes, or not bothering to vote at all. The traditional conservative, social democrat and liberal parties are themselves fragmenting, giving rise to various ‘movements’ (think Momentum and Blue Labour in the UK or La République En Marche! in France) and smaller parties catering to a particular niche – old people, free speech activists… even animals.
Why are people so disillusioned with the old ways of doing politics? Will the mainstream parties ever win back former supporters that have left them in droves? And if so, how?
