Yellow Vests: Western Economies Need a Paradigm Shift

Dramatic shifts in Western politics can only be understood within a wider perspective of a changing power balance between the poor and the rich in recent decades.

Dramatic shifts in Western politics can only be understood within a wider perspective of a changing power balance between the poor and the rich in recent decades. Rising populism is largely driven by this deepening sense of losing power and economic security. Political action is motivated by these dynamics and it challenges the prevailing economic paradigm. Western economies need a structural transformation in the way established economic order is functioning. The situation calls for an abolition of neo-liberal policies and the establishment of a new social contract, one that is based on a more collective mentality.