From Private Unhappiness to Public Outrage: The Emotional Origins of Twenty-First-Century Populism - A Review Essay by Vera Michlin-Shapir
From Private Unhappiness to Public Outrage: The Emotional Origins of Twenty-First-Century Populism - A Review Essay by Vera Michlin-Shapir

Summary/Abstract: In today’s global politics, one might borrow Tolstoy’s insight and say that ‘Happy countries are all alike; every unhappy country is unhappy in its own way.’ It’s a maxim that captures the diverse grievances driving the rise of populism across the twenty-first century. Mainstream media regularly publish international indices—the Corruption Perceptions Index, the Democracy Index, the Edelman Trust Barometer, and the World Happiness Report. At the top of these rankings, the same countries tend to appear: the world’s happiest places. Interestingly these are not necessarily the world’s richest nations. In many cases they are smaller countries with strong education and healthcare systems, small inequality and gender pay gaps, and high levels of trust in politicians and public institutions. Further down the rankings, however, we begin to see the countries that struggle with unhappiness.

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