Perhaps the only surprising thing about the populist backlash that has overwhelmed the politics of many advanced democracies is that it has taken so long.Even two decades ago, it was easy to predict that mainstream politicians’ unwillingness to offer remedies for the insecurities

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a mega trade deal covering 12 countries that together account for more than one-third of global GDP and a quarter of world exports — is the latest battleground in the decades-long confrontation between proponents and opponents of trade agreem

In mid-December, the United Nations will launch the latest of its annual landmark Human Development Reports.

Following 15 years of hype, a new conventional wisdom has taken hold: emerging markets are in deep trouble.

Nearly two decades ago, the political commentator Fareed Zakaria wrote a prophetic article called “The Rise of the Illiberal Democracy”, in which he worried about the rise of popular autocrats with little regard for the rule of law and civil liberties. Governments ma

In the pantheon of economic theories, the tradeoff between equality and efficiency used to occupy an exalted position. American economist Arthur Okun, whose classic work on the topic is called “Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff”, believed that public policies

When Mexico’s then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his American counterpart, Bill Clinton, signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) more than 20 years ago, the hope was that the Mexican economy would be swept forward by a rising wave of globalisation.

The global discussion about growth in the developing world has taken a sharp turn recently. The hype and excitement of recent years over the prospect of rapid catch-up with the advanced economies have evaporated.

It is hardly news that the rich have more political power than the poor, even in democratic countries where everyone gets a single vote in elections. But two political scientists, Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, have recently p