Bill Black — BREXIT: Populism and Democracy: Part 1

The UK vote in favor of BREXIT has stoked the fears of the New York Times to a fevered pitch. Their greatest collective fear is the rise of “populism.” The NYT fashions itself the last redoubt of “serious people” under siege by the rabble. BREXIT is an opportunity to drive home to the rabble the folly of failing to fall in line with the policies of the serious people featured in the NYT. The moral of the story is a simple one – when the electorate in a democratic election ignores the technocrats the result is an economic and social catastrophe.

Even for the NYT, however, their attacks on the UK electorate for daring to vote for BREXIT were extraordinary in their intensity and multiplicity. At least seven articles, each of them negative about the UK voters, were featured in today’s paper. (I had no strong views on the vote. I think reasonable UK voters could disagree on the desirability of BREXIT.)

This is the first in a seven-part series discussing each of these seven articles decrying BREXIT. I focus on the unintended aspect of each article, for each demonstrates the contempt that a broad range of elites have for the voters and democracy.…

New Economic Perspectives
BREXIT: Populism and Democracy: Part 1
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC