The Good Fight David Goodhart on Why the Educated Elite Lost Touch with Democracy
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Mar 24, 2026 
David Goodhart, journalist and author known for the Anywhere vs Somewhere framework, outlines how mobile, university-educated elites reshaped politics and policy. He traces the rise of the anywhere worldview, its effects on meritocracy and elites, and why care, skilled trades, and demographic shifts matter for democracy. The conversation also weighs AI, social mobility, and ways to rebalance social values.
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Anywhere Versus Somewhere Value Divide
- David Goodhart defines Anywheres as mobile, highly educated people comfortable with openness and autonomy, and Somewheres as more rooted, less-educated people attached to place and group identity.
- He argues this education-based value divide fueled Brexit and Trump's rise because policy favored the Anywhere worldview for decades.
Oxford Dinner That Sparked The Road To Somewhere
- Goodhart recounts an Oxford college dinner where the head of the civil service said his job was to maximize global welfare, and the BBC head agreed, illustrating elite cosmopolitan detachment.
- This encounter helped prompt him to write The Road to Somewhere as a response to elite views.
Overdomination Of Anywhere Policies
- Goodhart says the problem isn't the Anywhere worldview itself but its over-domination across political and cultural institutions, producing policies that benefit Anywheres.
- Examples include prioritizing higher education expansion, favoring managerial jobs, and indifference to deindustrialization and immigration impacts.
