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The Reform UK leader portrays his Reform UK party as a unique phenomenon that has exploded on to the world stage, its rapid ascent an exceptional epochal event. But this week, in every one of Europe’s major countries and from India and Thailand to the US and South America, hard-right, anti-immigration, anti-globalization parties like his are also leading in the public surveys.

During recent Czech voting, the rightwing, pro-Putin populist a prominent figure toppled prime minister Petr Fiala. A French political group, which has just brought down yet another French prime minister, is leading the polls for both the presidential race and parliament. In the German nation, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is currently the leading party. Hungary’s Fidesz party, Robert Fico’s pro-Russian Slovakian coalition and the Brothers of Italy are already in power, while the Austrian FPÖ, the Netherlands’ Freedom party (PVV) and Belgian Vlaams Belang – all hardline nationalists – are part of an global alliance of opponents of global cooperation, motivated by right-wing influencers such as a well-known figure, aiming to dethrone the global legal order, diminish human rights and destroy international collaboration.

Rise of Populist Nationalism

This nationalist wave exposes a recent undeniable reality that supporters of democracy overlook at great risk: an authoritarian ethnic nationalism – once thought toppled with the Berlin Wall – has supplanted economic liberalism as the dominant ideology of our age, giving us a world of firsts: “US priority”, “Indian focus”, “Chinese emphasis”, “Russia first”, “group priority” and often “my tribe first and only” regimes. It is this ethnic nationalism that helps explain why the world is now composed of many autocratic states and fewer democratic ones, and ethnic nationalism is the driver behind the breaches of global human rights standards not just by one nation in conflict but in almost every instance of global strife.

Root Causes Explained

It is important to understand the root causes, widespread globally, that have driven this new age of nationalism. It starts with a broadly shared perception that a globalization that was open but not inclusive has been a unregulated system that has been unjust to all.

For more than a decade, political figures have not only been delayed in addressing to the many people who feel excluded and marginalized, but also to the shifting dynamics of global economic power, transitioning from a unipolar world once led by the United States to a multipolar world of competing superpowers, and from a system of international law to a power-based one. The ethnic nationalism that this has incited means open commerce is being replaced by trade barriers. Where market forces used to drive politics, the nationalist agendas is now driving financial choices, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies characterized by reshoring and ally-focused trade and by restrictions on cross-border trade, investment and technology transfer, lowering global collaboration to its weakest point since 1945.

Hope in Global Public Sentiment

However, there is hope. The cement is still wet, and even as it solidifies we can find hope in the pragmatism of the world's population. In a recent survey for a prominent organization, of thousands of individuals in dozens of nations we find a clear majority are more resistant to an exclusionary nationalism and more willing to embrace global teamwork than many of the leaders who govern them.

Globally there is, maybe unexpectedly, only a small group of staunch global cooperation opponents representing 16.5% of the global population (even if 25% in the United States currently) who either feel coexistence between diverse communities is impossible or have a win-lose perspective that if they or their nation do well, it has to be at the expense of others doing badly.

But there are another 21% at the opposite extreme, whom we might call committed internationalists, who either still see cooperation across borders through open trade as a mutually beneficial arrangement, or are what an influential thinker calls “locally engaged global citizens”.

Worldwide Public Position

Most people of the global public are moderate in views: not isolated patriots, as “US priority” ideology would suggest, or all-in cosmopolitans. They are devoted to their country but don’t see the world as in a permanent conflict between the “us” and the “them”, opponents always divided from each other in an irreconcilable gap.

Are most moderates favor a duty-free or a responsible global community? Are they prepared to accept obligations beyond their garden gate or community boundaries? Yes, under certain conditions. A initial segment, about a fifth, will support humanitarian action to alleviate hardship and are ready to act out of selflessness, supporting emergency help for affected areas. Those we might call “charitable” cooperation advocates feel the pain of others and have faith in something larger than their own interests.

A second group comprising 22% are practical cooperators who want to know that any public funds for international development are spent well. And there is a third group, roughly a fifth, self-interested multilateralists, who will endorse cooperation if they can see that it advantages them and their local areas, whether it be through guaranteeing them food on the table or safety and stability.

Building a Cooperative Majority

Thus a clear majority can be constructed not just for emergency assistance if money is well spent but also for international measures to deal with global problems, like environmental emergency and pandemic prevention, as long as this argument is presented on grounds of wise personal benefit, and if we emphasize the mutual advantages that benefit them and their own country. And thus for those who have long wondered whether we cooperate out of need or if we have a need to cooperate, the answer is both.

This willingness to cooperate across borders shows how we can turn back the anti-foreigner sentiment: we can overcome current pessimistic, isolated and often forceful and controlling patriotic extremism that vilifies immigrants, foreigners and “others” as long as we champion a positive, outward-looking and inclusive patriotism that responds to people’s desire to belong and connects to their everyday worries.

Tackling Key Issues

And while in-depth polls tell us that across the Western nations, illegal immigration is currently the biggest national issue – and it's clear that it must quickly be managed effectively – the snapshots of opinion also tell us that the people are even more concerned about what is happening in their personal circumstances and within their immediate neighborhoods. Recently, the UK Prime Minister spoke movingly about how what’s positive in the nation can overcome what’s negative, doing so precisely because in most developed nations, “broken” and “in decline” are the words people have for years most commonly cited when asked about both our financial system and community.

But as the prime minister also pointed out, the far right is more interested in exploiting grievances than ending them. A Reform leader hailed a disastrous mini-budget as “the best Conservative budget” since the 1980s. But he would also enact a comparable strategy – what was planned – the largest reductions in public services. Reform’s plan to cut government expenditure by £275bn would not repair downtrodden communities but ravage them, create social division and destroy any sense of unity. Under a far-right government, you will not be able to afford to be ill, impaired, needy or vulnerable. Continually from now on, and in every constituency, the party should be asked which hospital, which educational institution and which government service will be the first to be cut or closed.

Risks and Solutions

“Faragism” is economic theory at its most cruel, more destructive even than monetary policy, and spiteful far beyond fiscal restraint. What the public are indicating all over the Western world is that they want their governments to restore our economies and our civic societies. “The party” and its global allies should be exposed day after day for plans that would harm both. And for those of us who believe our greatest achievements could be ahead of us, we can go beyond pointing out the party's contradictions by presenting a argument for a improved nation that resonates not just to idealists, but to realists, to personal benefit, and to the everyday compassion of the British people.