By Kabeer Kishore
In the past few years, nations across the world have received complete political makeovers, owing to the leaders they elected, and the policies, ideologies, and methods they supported. This shift in the political paradigm of the world not only has an impact on the present, but also gives us a glimpse into what the future might be like.
The start of this change can be traced back to the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014. Back then, his victory came as a break in the long running reign of the UPA. Although his campaign slogan was Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, his victory has led to a visible increase in partisanship across the nation. Although we cannot say for sure whether this was a part of his plan, his presence in the seat of power has definitely given fringe elements a dangerous boost. This, along with popularly ostracized, yet helpful, policies such as Demonetisation and GST, have led to a dip in Modi’s popularity, and have put the possibility of his re-election in 2019 at risk.
The next political leader to reinvent his country was Maithripala Sirisena, current President of Sri Lanka. The primary reason he was elected in 2015 was because of the Sri Lankans distaste for his opponent, the ex-president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. With Sirisena’s rise to power, the Sri Lankan political landscape was turned over its head. The existing cabinet was dissolved in order to tackle corruption; media rights were loosened, and online news websites were reinstated; the Right to Information act was brought into force; and most importantly, significant presidential powers were transferred to the parliament.
We now turn to the West where Theresa May was appointed Prime Minister of U.K. in 2016, and popularly elected in 2017. Her appointment as PM came after the sudden resignation of David Cameron, in the light of Brexit. Although she herself was a strong advocate of Bremain, she decided to go with the people’s choice. Along with this, May also reshuffled the entire cabinet, and brought in more right-wingers and Brexit supporters, even though she had a strong left-wing and pro-EU rhetoric. This move was dangerous for her Conservative party’s ideologies and plans, but beneficial for the smoothening of the Brexit process, as well as promoting strong economic development.
Then came the controversial 45th POTUS, Donald Trump. Assuming office in January 2017, Trump has been flexing his Presidential powers rather strongly. Starting with the Cabinet first, he brought in people who were strong supporters of his ideologies, which sparked controversy. Further, his Travel Ban, exit from the Paris Climate Treaty, increase in government spending on private military contractors, and other policies have grabbed the limelight. His alleged pre-presidential ideologies have also created uproar, and have supposedly given approval to radical groups in the US.
Going back to Europe, we have the young Emmanuel Macron, who, since his presidential victory in 2017, has completely reformed the existing labour-market laws in France. He started with scrapping 120,000 jobs from the civil service, and further giving French companies more flexibility on working hours and pay. He plans on shifting towards a more flexible and consensus driven union-management system. He has also pledged to act against “social dumping”, which is the employment of cheap labour from eastern Europe.
Finally, we have the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the true power behind the throne, Mohammad bin Salman. Since his declaration as heir apparent in June 2017, MBS has made great changes. He has initiated Vision 2030, a plan to liberalise, diversify, and privatise the Saudi economy. It works towards a more sustainable and technologically advanced, as well as a non-oil dependent system. He has further successfully lobbied for and implemented multiple important policies: restricting of the powers of religious police; allowing women to drive; establishing a Saudi entertainment authority ; and even for relaxing the conservative and rigid doctrines that are the foundation for the kingdom. He also conducted an anti-corruption purge, having over 500 princes, ministers, and businessmen arrested. These examples show that the political dynamics of the world are changing, with countries and governments shedding their age-old socioeconomic welfare garb, leading us towards a new, brave, yet uncertain world order.
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