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The Reform UK leader depicts his political party as a distinct occurrence that has exploded on to the global stage, its rapid ascent an exceptional historic moment. However this week, in every one of the continent's leading countries and from the Indian subcontinent and Thailand to the United States and South America, far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-globalization parties like his are also ahead in the public surveys.

During recent Czech voting, the conservative, pro-Russian leader a prominent figure toppled the head of government Petr Fiala. A French political group, which has just forced the resignation of yet another France's leader, is ahead the polls for both the presidential race and the legislature. In the German nation, the right-wing AfD party is currently the leading party. Hungary’s Fidesz party, Slovakia's governing alliance and the Brothers of Italy are already in government, while the Freedom party of Austria (FPÖ), the Dutch PVV and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang – all staunch nationalist groups – are part of an international coalition of anti-internationalists, inspired by far-right propagandists like Steve Bannon, aiming to dethrone the global legal order, diminish human rights and undermine international collaboration.

Rise of Populist Nationalism

The populist nationalist surge exposes a new and unavoidable truth that democrats overlook at great risk: an nationalist ideology – once thought toppled with the historic barrier – has replaced economic liberalism as the dominant ideology of our age, giving us a world of priorities: “US priority”, “Indian focus”, “China first”, “Russia first”, “my tribe first” and often “exclusive group focus” regimes. It is this nationalist sentiment that helps explain why the world is now composed of many autocratic states and fewer democratic ones, and this ideology is the force behind the violations of global human rights standards not just by one nation in conflict but in almost every one of the world’s 59 cross-border conflicts and civil wars.

Root Causes Explained

Crucial to understand the root causes, common to almost every country, that have fuelled this recent nationalist era. It begins with a broadly shared perception that a globalisation that was open but not inclusive has been a free for all that has not been fair to all.

Over the past ten years, leaders have not only been delayed in addressing to the many people who feel excluded and marginalized, but also to the shifting dynamics of world economic influence, moving us from a unipolar world once led by the US to a multi-power landscape of competing superpowers, and from a rules-based order to a power-based one. The nationalist ideology that this has provoked means free trade is being replaced by protectionism. Where economics used to drive politics, the nationalist agendas is now driving financial choices, and already over a hundred nations are running protectionist strategies marked out by bringing production home and ally-focused trade and by restrictions on international commerce, investment and knowledge sharing, lowering global collaboration to its weakest point since 1945.

Optimism in Public Opinion

However, there is hope. The cement is still wet, and even as it solidifies we can see optimism in the common sense of the world's population. In a recent survey for a prominent organization, of 36,000 people in dozens of nations we find a clear majority are more resistant to an exclusionary nationalism and more inclined to embrace global teamwork than many of the officials who govern them.

Across the world there is, maybe unexpectedly, only a small group of hardened anti-internationalists representing 16.5% of the global population (even if 25% in the United States currently) who either feel peaceful living between diverse communities is impossible or have a zero-sum mindset that if they or their nation do well, it has to be at the cost of others doing badly.

However there are an additional group at the opposite extreme, whom we might call dedicated globalists, 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 world's citizens are somewhere in between: not narrow, inward-looking nationalists, as “America first” ideology would suggest, or fully global citizens. They are devoted to their country but don’t see the world as in a never-ending struggle between the “our side” and the “them”, adversaries always divided from each other in an unbridgeable divide.

Do the majority in the middle prefer a duty-free or a dutiful world? Are they willing to accept obligations beyond their garden gate or community boundaries? Affirmative, under certain conditions. A first group, 22%, will support aid efforts to alleviate hardship and are prepared to act out of selflessness, supporting disaster relief for disaster zones. Those we might call “charitable” multilateralists feel the pain of others and believe in something bigger than themselves.

A second group comprising a similar percentage are pragmatic multilateralists who want to know that any taxes paid for global progress are used effectively. And there is a final category, roughly a fifth, personally motivated collaborators, who will approve cooperation if they can see that it benefits them and their communities, whether it be through ensuring them food on the table or peace and security.

Forging a Collaborative Consensus

So a definite majority can be built not just for emergency assistance if funds are used wisely but also for global action to deal with global problems, like climate crisis and disease control, as long as this argument is argued on grounds of wise personal benefit, and if we stress the mutual advantages that benefit them and their own country. And thus for those who have long questioned whether we cooperate out of need or if we have a need to cooperate, the response is each.

This willingness to cooperate across borders shows how we can reverse the xenophobic tide: we can overcome today’s negative, inward-looking and often aggressive and authoritarian patriotic extremism that vilifies newcomers, foreigners and “others” as long as we champion a optimistic, globally engaged and welcoming national pride that responds to people’s need for community and resonates with their immediate concerns.

Tackling Key Issues

Although detailed surveys tell us that across the west, illegal immigration is currently the biggest national issue – and no one should doubt that it must promptly be managed effectively – the public sentiment data also tell us that the public are even more concerned about what is happening in their personal circumstances and within their own local communities. Recently, the UK Prime Minister gave an emotional speech about how what’s good about Britain can drive out what’s bad, doing so precisely because in most western countries, “broken” and “deteriorating” are the words people have for years most frequently used when asked about both our financial system and community.

But as the leader also reminded us, the extreme right is more interested in exploiting grievances than resolving issues. Nigel Farage praised a ill-fated economic plan as “an excellent fiscal policy” since 1986. But he would also implement a similar plan – what was planned – the largest reductions in public services. Reform’s plan to cut government expenditure by £275bn would not fix struggling areas but damage them, turn citizen against citizen and destroy any sense of unity. Under a hard-right regime, you will not be able to afford to be sick, impaired, poor or at-risk. Continually from now on, and in every electoral district, the party should be asked which medical facility, which educational institution and which government service will be the first to be cut or shut down.

The Stakes and the Alternative

“Faragism” is neoliberalism at its most inhumane, more harmful even than monetary policy, and spiteful far beyond fiscal restraint. What the people are indicating all over the Western world is that they want their leaders to rebuild our economies and our civic societies. “The party” and its global allies should be exposed repeatedly for plans that would harm both. And for those of us who believe our best days could be ahead of us, we can go beyond highlighting Reform’s hypocrisy by presenting a argument for a improved nation that resonates not just to visionaries, but to realists, to personal benefit, and to the daily kindness of the nation's citizens.