Elections in the UK, France and India have delivered one verdict: home first.
Look at the UK. After spinning right for 14 years, the British electorate tilted centre-left this past week by giving the Labour Party a landslide mandate.
Across the channel, the French have sparked off another revolution in their unique spirit of Republicanism. History is testament that the people of these two modern nations like to not like each other. So, this is not a shared love-fest they plotted over warm beer and fine wine. Yet, together, they have spoken in a common language not lost in translation: Home first.
A nation at odds with itself since Brexit (and indeed since the Empire) looked within. As did France struggling between far- right, far-left, and a semblance of a centre in its monologue with itself.
These are just two results within a span of a few days in a year when over half the world’s nations – north, south, east, west – are ballot-bound. Just take a moment to fathom the range of countries that voted or are voting – US, India, Russia, Britain, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, and South Africa, to name a few.
All are significant players in various geo-strategic power blocs that influence our daily lives. However far-fetched that might seem, it is real. Imagine the conversations they are having within themselves. And the sort of dialogue they might want to have with others in the global circle of life going forward.
The importance of this moment-of-a-year-in-
Yet, electoral results from nations that have voted so far this year point to one inescapable fact. Domestic reality is top of the mind for the electorate, not the global scenario, even though their politicians often pivot overseas to shore up their own fortunes. At the heart of the matter is the domestic economy – do we have affordable access to food, shelter, sanitation, and transport to live reasonably well? We trust our ‘nation’ to take care of us.
The concept of the ‘nation-state’ and its attendant notions of identity, rights, duties – and importantly, a citizen’s claim over its resources and expectations of the government to deliver them – continue to thrive in our interconnected world. Benedict Anderson is not past time in saying ‘nation-ness’ is the “most universally legitimate political value of our times”. It is what the citizens hold accountable through the power of their vote.
On June 4, India returned a basic majority mandate for Narendra Modi to helm a third term in office as prime minister. The voters of the world’s largest electoral democracy were astute as always – never mind the naysayers who are illiterate about their intellect or miss their pulse. They delivered a verdict for a stable union government in a federal system – and thus gave themselves a cover from political instability that may have arisen from a fractured parliament.
But, they cut the incumbent establishment to size and gave it notice. Serve up food, jobs, and the basics of decent living for us at home.
In the run-up to the polls, experts at reputable think tanks had posited that the current government’s aggressive foreign policy – that seeks to position India as a self-assured global superpower whose time has come – would find traction with India’s substantial middle-class and be a factor in the elections. That did not come to bear. Voters said, India matters first. Its international ambitions can wait.
Meanwhile, the US is in a domestic shambles in the run-up to its presidential elections. The land of the free and home of the brave will have to take a hard look at what it means for itself. Everyday people here do not care about being global police chief. They want food on the table and affordable healthcare for starters. Not to mention the main course of internal culture wars that they consume with gusto.
It is always the domestic and its lived reality, stupid, voters seem to be saying across borders. We’ll think global when we are secure within. After all, charity begins at home.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council also held elections this year. Note that France and the UK have veto powers here. The import of domestic politics – and the new dispensations coming to power within borders, their mandate, and thus their agendas – for the global order is self-evident. The times, they are a changing, again.
