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The Reform UK leader portrays his political party as a distinct occurrence that has exploded on to the global stage, its rapid ascent an exceptional historic moment. However this week, in every one of Europe’s leading countries and from the Indian subcontinent and Thailand to the United States and Argentina, hard-right, anti-immigration, anti-globalisation parties similar to his are also leading in the opinion polls.

During recent Czech voting, the conservative, pro-Russian leader a prominent figure toppled the head of government Petr Fiala. A French political group, which has just forced the resignation of yet another French prime minister, is leading the polls for both the French presidency and parliament. In Germany, the right-wing AfD party is currently the leading party. Hungary’s Fidesz party, Slovakia's governing alliance and the Italian political group are already in government, while the Austrian FPÖ, the Netherlands’ Freedom party (PVV) and Belgian Vlaams Belang – all hardline nationalists – are part of an global alliance of anti-internationalists, motivated by right-wing influencers like Steve Bannon, seeking to dethrone the global legal order, weaken fundamental freedoms and undermine multilateral cooperation.

The Populist Nationalist Surge

This nationalist wave exposes a new and unavoidable truth that supporters of democracy overlook at our peril: an authoritarian ethnic nationalism – once thought defeated with the Berlin Wall – has replaced economic liberalism as the leading belief system of our age, giving us a world of priorities: “US priority”, “Indian focus”, “China first”, “Russia first”, “my tribe first” and often “exclusive group focus” regimes. It is this nationalist sentiment that helps explain why the world is now composed of many autocratic states and fewer democratic ones, and this ideology is the driver behind the breaches of international human rights law not just by one nation in conflict but in almost every one of the world’s 59 cross-border conflicts and civil wars.

Understanding the Underlying Forces

Crucial to understand the root causes, common to almost every country, that have driven this new age of nationalism. It starts with a broadly shared perception that a globalization that was accessible yet exclusionary has been a free for all that has not been fair to all.

For more than a decade, leaders have not only been slow to respond to the many people who feel left out and marginalized, but also to the changing balance of world economic influence, moving us from a unipolar world once led by the US to a multipolar world of competing superpowers, and from a rules-based order to a power-based one. The ethnic nationalism that this has provoked means open commerce is being replaced by protectionism. Where market forces used to drive government policies, the nationalist agendas is now driving economic decisions, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies characterized by bringing production home and friend-shoring and by bans on cross-border trade, investment and technology transfer, sinking international cooperation to its lowest ebb since 1945.

Optimism in Public Opinion

However, there is hope. The situation is not fixed, and even as it hardens we can find hope in the pragmatism of the world's population. In a poll conducted for a major foundation, of 36,000 people in dozens of nations we find a significant portion are less receptive to an divisive nationalist agenda and more inclined to embrace global teamwork than many of the officials who rule over them.

Across the world there is, maybe unexpectedly, only a limited number of staunch global cooperation opponents representing a minority of the global population (even if a quarter in today’s US) who either feel coexistence between diverse communities is unattainable or have a win-lose perspective that if they or their nation do well, it has to be at the expense of others doing badly.

But there are an additional group at the opposite extreme, whom we might call dedicated globalists, who either still see cooperation across borders through open trade as a mutually beneficial arrangement, or are what a prominent philosopher calls “locally engaged global citizens”.

The Global Majority's Stance

Most people of the world's citizens are moderate in views: not isolated patriots, as “US priority” ideology would suggest, or fully global citizens. They are patriotic but don’t see the world as in a permanent conflict between the “us” and the “others”, adversaries permanently set apart from each other in an unbridgeable divide.

Do the majority in the middle prefer a obligation-light or a dutiful world? Are they prepared to accept obligations beyond their garden gate or city wall? Affirmative, under specific circumstances. A first group, 22%, will back aid efforts to relieve suffering and are prepared to act out of selflessness, backing emergency help for disaster zones. Those we might call “charitable” cooperation advocates feel the pain of others and believe in something larger than their own interests.

Another segment comprising a similar percentage are practical cooperators who want to know that any public funds for international development are used effectively. And there is a final category, 21%, personally motivated collaborators, who will endorse cooperation if they can see that it benefits them and their communities, whether it be through guaranteeing them food on the table or peace and security.

Building a Cooperative Majority

Thus a definite majority can be constructed not just for emergency assistance if money is well spent but also for global action to deal with global problems, like environmental emergency and pandemic prevention, as long as this case is argued on grounds of enlightened self-interest, and if we stress the reciprocal benefits that flow to them and their own country. And thus for those who have long questioned whether we work together from necessity or if we have a necessity for collaboration, the response is both.

And this openness to work internationally shows how we can turn back the anti-foreigner sentiment: we can overcome today’s negative, inward-looking and often aggressive and authoritarian patriotic extremism that demonises immigrants, foreigners and “others” as long as we advocate for a optimistic, globally engaged and welcoming national pride that addresses people’s need for community and resonates with their immediate concerns.

Addressing Public Concerns

Although detailed surveys tell us that across the west, illegal immigration is currently the biggest national issue – and it's clear that it must quickly be brought under control – the public sentiment data also tell us that the public are even more concerned about what is happening in their personal circumstances and within their immediate neighborhoods. Recently, the UK Prime Minister spoke movingly about how what’s positive in the nation can overcome what’s bad, doing so precisely because in most developed nations, “broken” and “in decline” are the words people have for years most frequently used when asked about both our financial system and society.

But as the leader also reminded us, the far right is more interested in exploiting grievances than resolving issues. Nigel Farage hailed a disastrous mini-budget as “the best Conservative budget” since the 1980s. But he would also enact a similar plan – what was planned – the biggest ever cuts in public services. The party's proposal to cut government expenditure by a huge sum would not repair struggling areas but ravage them, create social division and destroy any sense of unity. Under a hard-right regime, you will not be able to afford to be ill, impaired, poor or vulnerable. Continually from now on, and in every electoral district, Reform should be asked which hospital, which educational institution and which public service will be the first to be cut or shut down.

The Stakes and the Alternative

“Faragism” is neoliberalism at its most inhumane, more destructive even than monetarism, and spiteful far beyond austerity. What the people are telling us all over the Western world is that they want their leaders to restore our economies and our civic societies. “The party” and its international partners should be exposed repeatedly for plans that would harm both. And for those of us who believe our best days could be ahead of us, we can go beyond pointing out Reform’s hypocrisy by setting out a argument for a better Britain that appeals not just to visionaries, but to realists, to self-interest, and to the daily kindness of the nation's citizens.