Less than a decade ago, a new trend of anti-ideology discourse began to emerge around the West. We kept reading that politics is no longer defined by Left and Right, but by the divide between “open” and “closed” societies. Culture, not the economy, was proclaimed the new driving force of politics. This meant culture war instead of class war.

Economics and material causes will continue to drive political choice, so long as we haven’t reached a utopia of infinite abundance. But this post-ideological claim, ”no more Left vs. Right,” normally translates into “right-wing choices only” — and having to pick between different flavors of them. The “extreme center“ is another way of putting it. The illusion of a “post-ideological era” only strengthens the dominant ideology in denying the existence of any alternative.

Despite the establishment’s insistence that we’ve moved beyond the left-right divide, in some cases like France and Spain new movements have emerged that bring the politics of equality and solidarity back into public focus. Some countries, however, were not so fortunate. In Romania, alternative economic policies are no longer debated. Instead, politicians are in a race to the bottom to prove who is the most pro-business and anti-taxes.