Macroscope

In 2020, voters everywhere must reject policies that cut public spending only to enrich the wealthy

When the neoliberal policies of old failed us, it has been the far right that seized on the public discontent to make political gains. But the solutions they offer are broken, and voters must demand public investments that actually benefit people

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A homeless man in Washington D.C. beds down for the night opposite Franklin Square park on the steps of the Sphinx Club at Almas Temple. Donald Trump’s cuts to social spending, while raising the defence budget and offering tax cuts that benefit the rich, have contributed to increased inequality. Photo: Washington Post

Isabel Ortiz, director of the Global Social Justice Programme at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, was director of the International Labour Organisation and Unicef, and a senior official at the UN and the Asian Development Bank.

Published: 10:00pm, 2 Jan 2020Updated: 11:08pm, 2 Jan 2020

The year 2019 ended with widespread demonstrations, rising inequality and a crisis of representation in many countries. The world is sleepwalking towards recession and a new crisis, while depleting the environment. Governments, and ultimately people, can reverse these alarming trends in 2020.

Sixty-one countries will have presidential or parliamentary elections in 2020. Many citizens want change, and they will choose new parties as a way to achieve this.

This is an important opportunity to redress the current situation, but many of the new emerging leaders are far-right demagogues who blame today’s problems on social welfare policies, migrants and the poor, while aiming to remove all remaining constraints on capital. As in Britain, many whom neoliberalism has harmed will vote for these politicians, making the world a more unequal and riskier place.

A lot will be decided in the US, still the world’s hegemonic power. How US citizens vote in the 2020 presidential election will have profound consequences for the rest of the planet’s citizens.