Populists and neo-liberals in competition

Democracy and prosperity, that was the promise of our social order. Participation should extend to all walks of life. After the collapse of our social model in the two world wars, the West went under American hegemony. This was based on the exploitation of the third world supported by the fuel petroleum. The competition with the Soviet model stifled any critical consideration. After the implosion of the Soviet Empire, the American-dominated Madell seemed to be unrivaled in capitalist development for a short time. But China and the Asian states showed that the capitalist model works without a democratic narrative.

The new world order is now based on the competition of the old and new world powers. The Western intelligentsia is still trying desperately to save the democratic narrative, while the political class is simultaneously driving military rearmament.

Freedom, equality and brotherhood have long been forgotten, they have disappeared from the agenda. Thinking globally does not capture the protagonists of Western ideology. Free trade ideology and nationalistic thinking dominate the scene. The misery of Africa is almost taken as a confirmation of its own social model. Nor can the Western model guarantee large layers of prosperity, with the narrowing of economic opportunities and the progressive concentration of capital in ever fewer hands or anonymous corporations, the expectations of broad layers can no longer be met. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that the resources of poor countries can no longer be exploited with impunity, and that the exploitation of labor creates the hardships of poor people as competitors in the domestic labor market and exacerbates class divisions.

Part of the population celebrates and the other works, this model can not be extended to all over the world despite all attempts. The populists want to save this model by national borders, the neoliberals plead for a limitless expansion. For a historical moment, the discussion of these alternatives has replaced the discussion of the contrast between socialism and capitalism.