Why Bidenomics did not deliver in spite of its working class focus

Joe Biden's policies failed to recognize the changed nature of the US economy and so they were unable to achieve their aims

- DANI RODRIK

As US president, Joe Biden charted a new economic path for the Democrats by siding unabashedly with the working class and introducing a wide range of industrial policies to reinvigorate US manufacturing, reshore supply chains and promote the green transition. Most of these new policies made economic sense, and like many other progressives, I thought they made political sense as well. What, then, accounts for Vice-President Kamala Harris's disappointing electoral performance, especially with working-class voters?

Donald Trump's appeal, like that of right-wing ethno-nationalists elsewhere, owes much to rising levels of economic insecurity, which many regard as the result of deregulation, increased corporate power, globalization, deindustrialization and automation. As the traditional champions of the underdog, centre-left parties could have benefited from these developments. But they had come to speak more for educated professional elites, and they were slow to alter course. Faced with the growing perception that they'd abandoned their working-class roots, Biden's move toward economic populism seemed like the right strategy.

One interpretation of Trump's re-election is that economic populism was a mistake, implying that the Democratic Party should have moved more forcefully to the centre-ground instead. But Harris's apparently fruitless efforts to woo middle-of-the-road Republican voters was not much of a success either.