Project on Center-Left Renewal
Helping create a strong center-left dialogue to fight against radical right-wing populism.
Its hallmarks include hostility to immigration and cultural pluralism, globalization, big business, and international institutions for collective problem-solving. The neo-nationalists deeply mistrust their own governments, avidly consume conspiracy theories, and admire authoritarian rulers like Vladimir Putin.
The transatlantic community needs a strong center-left to stand as a bulwark against these illiberal and anti-democratic forces. Yet liberal and progressive parties in Europe have borne the brunt of the working-class revolt that fuels national populism. Where the center-left is in government, its grip is precarious.
Exchanging ideas, strategies, and tactics to make center-left parties better and more effective.
PPI’s Project on Center-Left Renewal resumes our long-running conversation with center-left parties in Europe and around the world. Its purpose is to exchange ideas, strategies, and tactics for making center-left parties more competitive and improve their governing performance.
PPI has a strong track record of intellectual leadership going back to the late 1990s and 2000s, when we launched the “Third Way” dialogues between the New Democrats and New Labour to promote a cross-fertilization of policy innovations. These conversations attracted heads of state and center-left leaders and thinkers from North America and Europe, eventually spreading to South America and Asia.
Since the project launched in January 2023, the dialogue between center-left parties is strengthening, as they navigate challenging governing and electoral campaigns. If you would like to find out more please sign up to our newsletter and opt into the ‘Center-Left Renewal’ project.
Meet Claire Ainsley
Until recently, Claire served as Executive Director for Policy for Opposition Leader Keir Starmer. As such, Claire has played an integral role in Starmer’s rebuilding of Labour following Corbyn’s massive loss in 2019. Claire is the author of The New Working Class: How to Win Hearts, Minds and Votes, (2018), a book that grapples with the central political challenge center-left parties, which traditionally were the political home for working class voters.
She also served as the Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where she led JRF’s work on the social and political attitudes of people with low incomes.