The all-pervasive policy and political paradigms of neoliberalism are splintering. Pressures from populist forces have even pushed Thatcherite elements in the UK Conservative Party into the anti-elite language of an interventionist state and economic nationalism. These sentiments may turn out to be no more than electoral rhetoric. Yet they reflect the impact of the UKIP-inspired Brexit movement and the blue-collar nationalism of Trumpery in the USA. But what of left-populism – could it deliver a more decisive shift from the neoliberal paradigm? In this important and well-researched book Paolo Gerbaudo traces the international evolution of contemporary left populism back to the neo-anarchism of the anti/alter globalisation movements. These aimed to check the powers of multinational business and governmental institutions, and/or to set up alternative, more democratic civil society arrangements.

Gerbaudo argues, convincingly, that these currents underwent a significant torsion during the 2011 phase of popular urban protest against the fiscal and economic repression following from the financial crash of 2008. Refocussing from global concerns, the ‘movement of the squares’ in North America, Europe and Arab societies had distinctive national triggers – opposition to authoritarian rule in Egypt and Turkey, for example. However, there were also cross-national grievances against neoliberalsm: under- and unemployment, especially amongst the young, arbitrary political controls, and the impacts of public austerity on life quality and opportunities. From Egypt's Tahir Square protest, the Spanish Indignados, Greek Aganaktismenoi, Turkish Taksim protests and the more generic Occupy movements came two new and significant political themes: a re-focussing on nation-state, rather than global, institutions and – within the nation - demands for more meaningful citizenship through democratisation and accountability.

Interestingly, the Occupy and kindred movements prefigured the sentiment behind the Brexiteers’ mantra of ‘taking back control’. However, and tellingly, Gerbaudo shows that the development of this meme by the former was much more radical and threatening to power elites than the Brexit version. Deploying evidence from wide-ranging, cross-national sets of documents and interviews (covering New York, Egypt, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Tunisia, France and the UK), Gerbaudo explains how the politico-ideological dynamics of ‘the squares’ metamorphosed from key tenets of the preceding globalisation movements and how the new ideas, in turn, broke through into mainstream electoral politics; in countries such as Greece, Spain and (perhaps?) the UK. Citizenism according to Gerbaudo is the defining belief of this new wave. Unlike the globalisation campaigns’ heterogeneous sects, the crowds in the squares were previously politically unaligned or unorganised masses who sought a common identity, rather than the coalitions of politico-ideological allegiances which the former celebrated and tried to cohabit. Refocussing attention on the defects and injustices of national institutions, the new identity in the squares became that of the people versus the elites – deemed to have stolen, betrayed or abandoned the national democracies.

In the occupations and popular ‘assemblies’ the battle of ideas and practices became, broadly, a contest between the new emphasis on ‘citizenism’ and the neo-anarchism of the globalisation movements; which prioritised horizontal democracy and equality, to be practised in autonomous institutions. It was the newer, populist focus on ‘civic renewal’ which won out; with its emphasis on taking back national institutions by more active citizenship and democratisation. Against the external and global powers of finance capital the new left-populists invoked national identities and values. Gerbaudo speculates that the eventual failure of former squares activists’ backing for Bernie Sanders's Democratic nomination campaign created a precedent and a space for Donald Trump's more successful, though perverse, anti-finance populism. The book's conclusion even speculates that: ‘the organic crisis of neoliberal politics may be resolved in a regressive . . . direction, possibly also ushering in authoritarian phenomena. . .’

To media eyes the movements of the squares were modish protests which evaporated because of political naivety or lack of conventional organisational disciplines. However, Gerbaudo traces the ways in which, far from dying off, these initiatives solidified their mission into productive surges into mainstream politics: Sanders’ campaign to be US presidential candidate, Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain and, more ambiguously, Italy's heterodox Five Star movement. He also cites, without naming it, the Momentum campaign behind Jeremy Corbyn's gravity-defying rise to the Labour Party leadership and general election candidacy for prime minister. The limitations and contradictions in these political ventures are, however, also palpable.

Most obviously the transition from informal protest to organised political institutions risks betraying and subverting the values and strategic aims of the initial movements. Playing by the rules of the political system risks absorbing and draining their vitality and radicalism. More specifically citizenism's ideals of lateral decision-making and participatory equality have had to be compromised by the exigencies of hierarchical leadership in party structures. In Greece Syriza's accommodation to the demands of the international financial Troika encouraged top-down policy making and the formation of new, protest campaigns against this turn to orthodoxy. As it pursued electoral success Spain's Podemos movement has encountered heavy criticism and schisms for alleged arbitrary, centralised leadership. Yet Gerbaudo concludes in a positive vein; arguing, like other commentaries (Jones and O'Donnell, Reference Jones and O'Donnell2017) that a continuing dialectic between grass roots activism and democratising values can check and thwart inevitable tendencies towards hierarchic control and establishment protocols. The diverse consequences of the UK general election for the left populism and party democratisation espoused by Corbyn may be a defining moment for the UK version of this dialectic.