Issue 501 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

April 2017

April issue: Populism rises again

In the post-truth world of 2016, the day of the demagogue arrived. President Duterte played Dirty Harry in the Philippines. A pussy-grabbing, fact-denying, tax-shirking billionaire got elected US president. Smirking Brexiteers lied through their teeth and had their way. Authoritarian populists have stoked anger and division, and exposed faultlines in democracy. In this edition we ask, what is the appeal of the appalling? And is a progressive populism the answer?

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In this issue

  • Swallowing the lies – or ‘alternative facts’ – of populist politicians is having profound consequences. NJ Enfield takes a fresh look at a potent old tradition – and suggests a way forward.
  • Hardliners are thriving on popular disenchantment with politics. Dinyar Godrej on the challenge they pose.
  • There is no country in the world that has a proud history of men making great laws about women’s bodies, writes Kate Smurthwaite.
  • Rising distrust of politicians and parliaments, declining voter turnouts – these are now common trends in many established democracies. But is support for democracy itself ebbing away?
  • In the United States in the 1980s, the simple act of providing refuge became a form of civil disobedience, writes Mark Engler.
  • As the New Internationalist embarks on its great, democratic, community shares experiment, Vanessa Baird explores the contradictions of today’s media landscape.
  • Surrogacy has become an international trade that needs tighter regulation, argues Miranda Davies.
  • Rebecca Cooke meets young women in Mozambique who are defying the odds and resisting child marriage.
  • Pedro X Molina from Nicaragua with ‘American Honeymoon’.
  • In Canada, private sponsors are paying refugees’ resettlement costs. But should such a scheme be replicated elsewhere? Sian Griffiths reports.
  • The Trump shock shows that the same old same old is no longer an option. Jonathan Matthew Smucker on building the progressive alternative.
  • Don’t just think of it as a dirty word, says Richard Swift; a genuine populism of the Left is long overdue.
  • The violence of the Duterte regime in the Philippines and the devotion of his fans, as witnessed by Iris C Gonzales.
  • Both cash flow and political power have remained concentrated in Cambodia, writes Zoe Holman.