The sheer volume of the world’s elections this past year is difficult to fully comprehend. Voters in more than 60 countries, comprising more than than 40 percent of the planet’s population, went to the polls in 2024. The countries ranged from from full democracies to outright autocracies to various types of regimes in between.
Even more baffling is that a unified set of themes managed to emerge, linking the disparate global events into a single political narrative. Incumbents were punished, newcomers were rewarded, and previously fringe views cemented a place in the political mainstream. The world’s election results tell us that 2024 was a year of political frustration.
The sheer volume of the world’s elections this past year is difficult to fully comprehend. Voters in more than 60 countries, comprising more than than 40 percent of the planet’s population, went to the polls in 2024. The countries ranged from from full democracies to outright autocracies to various types of regimes in between.
Even more baffling is that a unified set of themes managed to emerge, linking the disparate global events into a single political narrative. Incumbents were punished, newcomers were rewarded, and previously fringe views cemented a place in the political mainstream. The world’s election results tell us that 2024 was a year of political frustration.
The most prominent example of that discontent was the U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump, the former Republican president, regained the White House after four years of a Democratic administration. Iran’s reformist Masoud Pezeshkian channeled the liberal enthusiasm of young voters to defeat his hardline and conservative opponents. And in the United Kingdom, the government experienced a historic shift in the opposite direction. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority, bringing 14 years of Conservative Party rule to an end.
Even when existing leaders managed to hold onto power, the anti-incumbency trend was still legible. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eked out a third consecutive victory but were only able to keep power by forging a coalition with opposition parties. In South Africa, the African National Congress ceded its majority in parliament for the first time since the end of the apartheid era. The coalition headed by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party—a party that has held power for almost the entirety of the country’s post-World War II era—also lost its parliamentary majority.
What was fueling this anti-incumbent fervor? The most obvious answer is economic discontent. In a global survey conducted this year by Pew, a median of 64 percent of adults in surveyed countries said their national economy was in bad shape. Inflation was an especially important issue in this year’s elections, tracing to the trend of post-pandemic price increases.
But there was also a pronounced ideological dimension to the world’s election results. There were some shifts to the center-left, including Labour’s victory in Britain. But many election winners were fueled by a rejection of existing mainstream politics. This populism was sometimes located on the left, as with the first-place finish of France’s left-wing New Popular Front in snap parliamentary elections. But its right-wing variant tended to be even more successful, from Trump’s victory in the United States to reactionary victories in Indonesia, Austria, and the European Parliament.
There remains, of course, a truth to the cliché that all politics is local. That’s why, in addition to tracing the global trends at work, it’s worth trying to understand each national election on its own terms—which is exactly what FP aimed to do this year in our reporting and analysis. Here’s a look back at our elections coverage.
1. Iranians Voted for Change. Will They Get It?
by Sina Toossi, July 9
When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suddenly died in May in a helicopter crash, the tragedy triggered an expedited election to replace him—and offered the Iranian public the chance to express their dissatisfaction with his hardline approach to governing the country. Masoud Pezeshkian emerged as the winner after campaigning on promises to cater to the liberalizing desires of young Iranians—but carrying out that agenda, explains Sina Toossi, is easier said than done.
“The extent to which Pezeshkian can fulfill his campaign promises remains to be seen,” Toossi writes. “The president is not the highest authority in Iran; that position belongs to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although the president oversees the day-to-day administration of the government and has significant influence over domestic and foreign policy, his powers are limited, particularly in matters of national security.”
2. Modi’s Power Has Peaked
by Devesh Kapur, June 4
After two terms in office, Narendra Modi seemed to have cemented himself and his BJP as immovable fixtures of Indian politics, shaping the country in their preferred Hindu nationalist image. “The BJP’s manifest hegemony appeared to presage its continued dominance of the Indian political landscape well into the future,“ Devesh Kapur writes.
However, India has always tended toward power-sharing in government, and Modi will now need to accommodate those lessons from the country’s history. “In his 10 years in power, Modi has never had to rely on coalition partners. The election marks not only the end of single-party control in the Indian Parliament but also the BJP’s having peaked,” Kapur writes. “Coalition governments—the natural order for India’s democracy since the late 1980s, except for the past decade—are back to stay.“
3. Why Mexico Picked a Woman President First
by Carin Zissis, November 15
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during a press conference in Mexico City on June 10.Hector Vivas/Getty Images
Mexico didn’t allow women the right to vote until 1953, and more than 75 percent of Mexicans lament that their country is marked by the chauvinistic masculine culture of machismo. And yet, polls conducted this year showed that “61 percent of Mexicans said they would prefer a woman to be their next president, compared with 14 percent who said a man,” writes Carin Zissis—before going on to explain why those surprising attitudes emerged, and how they resulted in Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory as president.
“No Latin American country has passed more reforms expanding women’s representation than Mexico,” Zissis explains. “Along the way, a network of women from across civil society, academia, media, and government worked strategically to win support and close loopholes that made it easy for parties to run women candidates in districts they were likely to lose anyway or swapping a man into a post after a woman wins a seat.”
4. Starmerism Is Crashing Against Reality
by John Kampfner, September 25
When Keir Starmer assumed the office of British prime minister with a commanding parliamentary majority for his Labour Party, many assumed he would markedly shift the country from its trajectory after more than a decade of Conservative Party rule. Those observers fundamentally misunderstood Starmer’s approach to politics. Britain’s leader, John Kampfner explains, is actually “a cautious conservative.”
“Starmer has convinced himself that he can improve people’s lives purely by tackling their country’s many problems more efficiently,” writes Kampfner. “He is not setting about changing the fundamental tenets that underpin British society.“
5. How Will Probowo Lead Indonesia?
by Silal Tripathi, February 28
Prabowo Subianto’s victory in Indonesia‘s presidential election owes “much to the popularity of outgoing Indonesian President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi,” Salil Tripathi writes. Subianto served as Jokowi’s defense minister and earned his endorsement. But it would be a mistake to assume their approach to politics will overlap entirely.
“Few of the outgoing president’s technocratic ministers are expected to continue serving under Prabowo, which Prabowo may not mind. His economic policies are populist, such as proposals to boost subsidies, particularly a school meal program that will increase Indonesia’s fiscal deficit,” writes Tripathi. “By contrast, Jokowi’s finance minister—the respected economist Sri Mulyani Indrawati—is known for her reformist credentials and once served as the managing director of the World Bank; she is unlikely to serve under Prabowo.”
