Recent elections in the advanced western democracies have undermined the basic foundations of political systems that had previously beaten back all challenges-from both the left and the right. The election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, only months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, signalled a dramatic shift in the politics of the rich democracies.

In this online lecture, Jonathan Hopkin will trace the evolution of this shift and argues that it is a long-term result of abandoning the post-war model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. Using a comparative approach, he will explain why different kinds of anti-system politics emerge in different countries and how political and economic factors impact the degree of electoral instability that emerges. 

Jonathan Hopkin (@jrhopkin) is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Government and European Institute at LSE. 

Waltraud Schelkle is Professor in Political Economy in the European Institute at LSE. 

You can order a copy of Anti-System Politics by Jonathan Hopkin from the LSE Events independant bookshop, Pages of Hackney. 

The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is home to some of the most internationally respected experts in politics and government; producing influential research that has a global impact on policy, and delivering world-class teaching to our students. 

The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

The twitter hashtag for this event is #LSEAntiSystemPolitics