Politics in the West is fundamentally changing. The likes of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Germany’s AfD are often seen as a rising ‘Far Right’. This is wrong, argues Jean-Paul Faguet, because it implies that these politicians exist on the same Left-Right axis that has long defined Western politics. That axis is increasingly irrelevant. The traditional working class is disappearing: most people, from office workers to Uber drivers, self-identify more as individualistic entrepreneurs than part of a working-class. The real political struggle – in which Trump and co. are already engaged – is to define a new axis of political competition, which reflects society’s real dividing lines. As the circus of the American election ground to its finale, many may have wondered if this is the future of politics throughout the West. Does the rise of Germany’s AfD, Geert Wilders in Holland, France’s Marine Le Pen, and others herald the end of politics as we thought we knew it…
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