Editorial: Politics with a human face

The late 20th-century British politician Enoch Powel once wrote that “all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and human affairs”. Many will agree with this statement but one needs to understand the metrics by which political success can be measured.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister since 2017, shocked her country and many others who follow international politics when she announced that she was resigning as prime minister. She said that, following a period of reflection over Christmas, she no longer had the energy to carry on as leader of the government and would resign rather than contest a general election in October.

So, was Ardern’s political career a failure like that of many other politicians? Bryce Edwards, a political analyst at Victoria University, in Wellington, remarked that Ardern had risen to power “out of nothing” at a time when left-wing parties were in retreat. She had undoubted charisma and a large dose of empathy. Edwards argues that “she was a revelation and a nice counter to populist, reactionary politics”.

Comparisons with the way that former US president...