The "multiple elite party system" - the intellectual elite (“Brahmin Left”) and the business elite (“Merchant Right”) and links to other news and views

A new paper by Thomas Piketty finds that major parties on both sides of the political spectrum have been captured by elites and warns of a future political system that pits “globalists” against “nativists.”
Piketty tracks electoral trends across three countries—the US, Britain, and France—from 1948 to 2017. Despite their vastly different electoral systems and political histories, he finds, a similar trend can be found in all three countries: left and center-left parties no longer represent the working- and lower-middle-class voters they were traditionally associated with.
Instead, both the left- and right-wing parties have come to represent two distinct elites whose interests diverge from the rest of the electorate: the intellectual elite (“Brahmin Left”) and the business elite (“Merchant Right”). Piketty calls this a “multiple-elite party system”: the highly educated elite votes one way, and the high-income, high-wealth elite votes another.
With the major parties on both sides of the political spectrum becoming captured by elites, it’s no wonder so many voters feel unrepresented. In this respect, the rise of anti-establishment populism can be seen not as an anomaly, but as harbinger of what could very well become “the central political cleavage of our time.” 
Spain's Palma to ban holiday rentals after residents' complaints - BBC

Inside the Intense, Combative World of Covering the Trump White House - Variety


Just about any correspondent covering the White House today will tell you that the kind of tension and animus that exists between the press corps and the Trump administration is something new and different. Most reporters share a sense that covering Trump is a challenge like no other, at a time when political journalists and the First Amendment are under siege. If it isn’t the president’s frequent outbursts on Twitter, railing against one particular story, news outlet or reporter, it is the unrelenting pace of the breaking-news cycle, much of it due to Trump’s erratic, unconventional behavior and the public interest in his every move.
Refugees need not be a burden, if they are allowed to work - The Economist
The successes and failures of Uganda’s liberal refugee policy have lessons for elsewhere 
Good timing: Australia Post in talks to become a bank - MW
According to sources, new chief executive and managing director, Christine Holgate, is driving the deliberations on Australia Post becoming a bank, leveraging its network of almost 7,000 offices across the country.
Holgate is said by those who know her to be driven by community and social purpose as much as commercial objectives. She declined to be interviewed for this story.
Australia Post also declined to respond to specific questions vis-a-vis the position of the relevant government ministries, discussions with the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) over licensing and any involvement of external consultants.
Instead, this response:
“Statement, attributable to Australia Post spokesperson:
Australia Post has no plans to obtain a banking license.”



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Scott Morrison getting ahead of Malcolm Turnbull in the GST debate?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison under pressure as the question about knowledge of a rape gets embarrassing

Remembering that Labor only lost last time because of Bill Shorten