The contrast could hardly be more striking. The Prime Minister of great Britain Theresa may (Theresa May) runs a “hung” Parliament and a fragmented country. The President of the United States Donald trump ruled side by side with a Congress that is paralyzed so badly that he could no longer make laws. In both countries the ultra-right and ultra-left ideas and movements are rapidly gaining popularity, political debates become ever more violent and hate-filled. Criminals are now left and right shooting at us congressmen, and in the UK last year killed a member of Parliament.
Meanwhile, new French President Emmanuel macron (Emmanuel Macron) is preparing to do something extraordinary: his new party “Forward, Republic of”, most likely, will have an unprecedented majority of seats in the French Parliament. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will probably remain in office for a third term as German voters are in the majority still prefer centrist parties. Even in Italy, where in recent years have increasingly talking about the resurgence of populism, voters have just strongly rejected the populist party in the local elections.
Remember The Old Europe? Said she was dying, that she loses weight that she is a “corpse” to which the British did not desire to be chained. And now it turns out that things are different. Suddenly, Europe started to look more stable, inspire more hope and show much more consistency. There has been talk about reform and renewal, not revolution. Growth resumed. The predicted victory of right-wing never materialized.
Paris and Berlin remain United and confident in their abilities, whereas for Washington and London is now the characteristic disunity. Something is rotten in the Anglo-Saxon world, at least in the axis States and the United Kingdom. Although it is still too early to draw final conclusions, below I will list a few possible causes of what is happening.
Inequality. In the UK and the US recorded a higher level of income inequality than in most other countries of the developed world — by far a higher level than in Germany and France. Although quite difficult to prove that the level of inequality is increasing — according to some sources, in 2008 the level of inequality even decreased slightly — residents of the UK and USA are seriously concerned about this problem. This situation is probably due to the fact that both these countries are tolerant reacted to the rise of oligarchy: the high wages of the heads of corporations, the increase in the number of luxury real estate and the omnipresence of billionaires in the media and politics also affect the opinion of voters.
Reduction of expenses on social sphere. Compared to many other developed countries the UK and the US spend on social spending less money. The U.S. is one of the lower lines in this list, the UK is closer to the middle, but well below Germany and France. But in this case, how people perceive the situation, too, can make a big difference. In the US the debate around the health care system really exacerbated the situation. In the UK austerity measures (which are not helped to cope with the budget deficit) has led to such a decline in expenditure on social services, which people are unable not to pay attention. A terrifying fire in a multistory building in London caused a lot of questions about funding cuts to the fire service.
English. This may sound quite strange but if you think about the use of English as the language of world trade, on the one hand, of great benefit to trade in the USA and the UK, on the other — made the Economics and politics of these countries more open to external influence, have complicated the process of their regulation and perhaps made them less stable. English also became the language of the digital revolution and the Internet. New technologies first appear in the United States and great Britain, and such experiments are necessary, however they can also cause disruption and unhappiness. Incredible and unexpected political nostalgia — a yearning for a “simpler time” of 1950-ies — could be a reflection of the fact that recently in the USA and the UK there are too many violent events.
Brickset and effect trump. Contrary to expectations, the referendum on exiting the United Kingdom from the European Union and the spectacle of a serious rift in British political circles has provoked the growing support of the European Union and centrist parties throughout the continent. President trump and the chaos in the White house, in turn, weakened the support of those parties who were considered his allies. In the elections in their countries Norbert Hofer (Norbert Hofer) in Austria, Geert Wilders (Geert Wilders) in the Netherlands and marine Le Pen (Marine Le Pen) in France showed much lower results than expected. Ultra lose weight in Germany. Contacts trump may probably also weakened her position.
The vote. In an era of political change, proportional electoral systems create a wider and more flexible range of political parties compared to the Anglo-Saxon two-component systems. In an era of change a major party, which, in essence, represent a coalition of Republicans, Democrats, tories and labour are much more difficult to reform, and it is much more difficult to manage. Voters who are unable to find a suitable option among those offered to them, support the “outsiders”, such as trump or the leader of labour’s Jeremy Corbyn (Jeremy Corbyn). Now it is quite difficult to imagine that in the US or UK came to power, such a party as “Forward,” Republic of Makron.
Arrogance. Britain — or rather England — and the USA still believe in their exclusivity. Many members of their political classes — proponents of the approach “America first” and some supporters Brekzita — still believe that their country is quite able to live happily without any allies. The French and German electorate has a completely different historical experience. Most of them still want to be part of the economic and military alliances. In particular the older generation is afraid of the rise of extremism and generally was very cautious compared to their peers from the Anglo-Saxon world.
Good luck. If the results of several polls over the last two years were different, now the US and Britain could control Hillary Clinton and David Cameron, respectively. Then we would have no need to discuss most of these issues.
