Political Science in Turbulent Times
| Author | David Farrell |
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905817702729 |
APRIL 2017 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 7
2016 was a roller coaster of a year for
democracy, and also for political
science. Last spring, most British
political scientists felt that the majority
vote in the EU membership referendum would
be for ‘Remain’, and most US political scientists
didn’t see Trump surviving the primaries. The
general consensus in political science was
that the rise of populism in recent elections
across the world, while significant, would reach
a natural ceiling: mainstream political forces
would continue to hold the line.
One year on and so much has changed:
the British opted for Brexit, the Americans for
Trump; inconclusive elections in Ireland and
Spain (in Spain’s case following in the wake of
inconclusive elections a few months earlier)
resulted in tortuous inter-party wranglings
leading ultimately to the installation of zombie
governments. In Italy, Matteo Renzi, the
reformist Prime Minister, lost an important
constitutional referendum forcing his
immediate resignation and threatening to
plunge Italy (and the eurozone) back into crisis.
Political Science in
Turbulent Times
From Brexit to Trump, 2016 was a bad year for predictions. So where
does political science go from here? David Farrell argues that the
discipline needs to fundamentally reassess how it measures – and
thinks about – the political world.
On the same day as the Italian vote, Austrian
voters narrowly avoided electing the far-right
candidate, Norbert Hofer, as President with
almost half of the electorate voting for him.
Meanwhile, regional elections in Germany over
the course of the year also saw far-right gains
– most recently in Berlin last September when
the Alternative für Deutschland won over 14
per cent of the vote.
And these are just examples from the
world’s established democracies. Across the
globe democracy seems in retreat: newer,
more fragile democracies are under threat,
including EU member states like Hungary and
Poland; and Putin’s Russia is in the ascendanc y.
We’re back to the cult of ‘the strong rulers’; the
phenomenon of the ‘illiberal’ democracy is
now becoming more commonplace, resulting
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