Why Jacinda Ardern is just like a Latin American populist
Lacking an economic recovery plan, Jacinda Ardern's policies risk hurting the ordinary New Zealanders they aim to help – like a Latin American populist.
Under the leadership of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the Labour Party has secured the first absolute parliamentary majority since the country introduced its proportional electoral system in 1996. Ardern now has a free hand, but is unlikely to extract her country from a political-economic straitjacket strapped tighter by the economic fallout of a global pandemic.
Australians can sense the relative weakness of the Kiwi economy in the prevalence of flattened vowels heard on their streets. In 2018, there were about 570,000 New Zealanders living in Australia, up from fewer than 300,000 in 1990.
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Henry Thomson is an assistant professor of political economy in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University.
