SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Around the world, some 70 countries held elections this past year with votes that directly affected almost half of the planet's population. We're spending all of today's show talking about what happened. As Willem Marx reports, a common thread in the U.S. and elsewhere was discontent with incumbent governments.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Non-English language spoken).
WILLEM MARX, BYLINE: Back in January, it was Bangladesh that began this record year for elections. But within months, the largest vote winner and longtime president, Sheikh Hasina, was forced out by violent protests...
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
MARX: ...Before a popular interim government took power. And 2024's final election result, in Romania this month, was abandoned after authorities uncovered an apparent Russian propaganda plot.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Chanting in non-English language).
IAN LESSER: Publics on both sides of the Atlantic are in a very insurgent, very angry mood, and they're not treating incumbent governments very well.
MARX: Ian lesser is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank and says, increased polarizations sharpen political debate in many democracies and may increase international conflicts over trade and migration, too.
LESSER: Traditional politics and parties have been really disadvantaged in their ability to play in this new atmosphere of identity, politics and economic nationalism, which has gained strength in many places around the world, not least on both sides of the Atlantic.
MARX: Lesser says charismatic politicians, focused on migration, borders and economic health, are also benefiting from voter insecurity about the future. In several leading economies, rising wages and falling unemployment sometimes fail to offset the largest factor influencing people's economic unhappiness - high inflation. COVID-19 then Russia's Ukraine invasion saw inflation soar sharply worldwide, and the political fallout has often been fast, says Professor Florence Faucher at Paris' Sciences Po University, who researches political parties in France and Britain.
FLORENCE FAUCHER: If there's inflation, voters are likely to be unhappy with those in power who have failed to combat inflation, and they may be frustrated, and they want to vote to punish because one holds people accountable by punishing after the fact, even when sometimes they know that they are not directly and primarily responsible.
MARX: And amid political fights over inflation and immigration in the U.K., five prime ministers over 14 years saw their conservative party collapse in this summer's poll under Rishi Sunak. Incumbent parties in Japan, North Macedonia and South Africa also lost large parliamentary majorities. For South Africa's ANC, it was a first since the end of apartheid, while in neighboring Botswana, the ruling party was finally turfed out after 60 years. In other countries, incumbents lost seats and instead forged uncomfortable coalitions, as in France and India.
MILAN VAISHNAV: The Indian general election results fit quite well with the overall trend we're seeing of incumbents being punished at the ballot box for high prices and generally sort of middling economic performance.
MARX: Milan Vaishnav from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank says the fact Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced into a coalition in the world's largest democracy signaled a significant shift.
VAISHNAV: This was the first time since 2014 that Modi and his party were not able to secure a single-party majority. So I think it was a bit of a warning sign sent by voters. It's not that they've fallen out of love with Modi but that they're not entirely happy either.
MARX: But perhaps no democracy was messier than South Korea's, where President Yoon Suk Yeol had struggled for months against a powerful parliament packed with his opponents. He declared martial law earlier this month then backed down and is now paying the price with impeachment proceedings that could soon see him pushed out of the presidential palace. For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
