Populism as a check for democracy but not for climate

The Athens Democracy Forum made me understand that populism has a positive side that acts as a warning bell for democracy from turning overly elitist. However, I also came to see that populism has contributed to the extreme polarization of society in several countries and has negatively impacted climate politics.

After the 1990s, Francis Fukuyama and many liberals thought a bit like Tony Montana in "Scarface" - they had the world in their hands and the Marxist historical dialectic was over. However, globalization, despite its far more tangible positive and multicultural sides, along with the crumbling effects of the 2008 financial crisis, isolated some members of society. Too often, liberal politicians saw markets as more important than sovereign majoritarian will and appealed to the latter only during election times. Additionally, leftists grew more and more aseptic to...

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