Marcel H. Van Herpen
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How to get rid of political castes
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This chapter explores one of the underlying causes of populism: the real or perceived insularity of political elites which has led to a mutual alienation between the elite and the voter. Here a proposal is made to avoid structures and institutions which create political castes. The author gives the example of the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), an elite school which has produced a caste of mandarins, characterized by an extreme conformism and esprit de corps. The French ENA has an equivalent in the UK in the “Oxbridge” graduates who are overrepresented in parliament, while in the US politics has become the realm of the super-rich. The author proposes the promotion of more representative parliaments. However, he rejects the idea that parliaments should “mirror” the population, as some authors propose.

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The end of populism

Twenty proposals to defend liberal democracy

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