Project on Center-Left Renewal

Project on Center-Left Renewal

The rise of radical right-wing populism has upended the old, left-right structure of Western politics and deeply polarized our societies. 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 power – the United States, Germany, Spain – its grip is precarious.

Nonetheless, there are reasons to hope that the tide is turning against national populism.

In the United States, Democrats rejected left-wing progressives in favor of the pragmatically liberal Joe Biden in 2020 and bucked the usual midterm trend in 2022 by fielding experienced and moderate candidates against a slew of MAGA-style extremists endorsed by Trump.

In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party’s prospects are looking up after a 13-year exile from government. Over the past two years, party leader Keir Starmer has methodically exorcised the dogmatic socialism that took possession of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

PPI’s new 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.

The Institute 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 crossfertilization 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.

Leading the project is Claire Ainsley, who until recently 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). The book 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.