Populist anger is shaking the world, epitomized by the U.K.’s vote to “Brexit” the EU and even the election of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. In the U.S., Donald Trump’s election has transformed populist anger into political power. Is a worldwide populist wave inevitable?
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has spent decades studying how democracies succeed and fail, in the West and elsewhere. He has also been a leading voice for the unity of Canada and the distinctive identity of Quebec, which forced him to grapple with the causes of populist rage and anti-immigrant sentiment.
Here he explains what can be done to address populist anger and the stereotyping of immigrants.
UCLA sociologist Jeff Guhin spends time hanging out in evangelical Christian, Muslim, and secular high schools in the U.S. In this essay, he explains how Taylor’s ways of understanding both faith and secularity make it possible to understand and study ways of thinking that are different from our own.
This video and Guhin’s essay are part of an Inquiry produced by the Berggruen Institute and Zócalo Public Square, on philosopher Charles Taylor, recipient of the 2016 Berggruen Prize.
