Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Hopkin | At this year’s Annual Lecture, which marks the 10th anniversary of LEQS and follows just days after this year’s European parliamentary elections, Jonathan Hopkin will discuss the recent ruptures in the politics of the rich democracies, signalled by electoral instability across Europe, as well as dramatic events like the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency and the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union. Dr Hopkin argues that these tumultuous political developments are a consequence of a longer-term crisis of market liberalism, resulting from the abandonment of the post-war model of egalitarian capitalism in the 1970s. This shift in politics entailed weakening the democratic process in favor of an opaque, technocratic form of governance that allows voters little opportunity to influence policy. With the financial crisis of the late 2000s, these arrangements became unsustainable, as incumbent politicians were unable to provide solu
