How Stable Are Democracies? Warning Signs Are Flashing Red

[swag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/world/americas/western-liberal-democracy.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

By AMANDA TAUB NOV. 29, 2016

WASHINGTON — Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way.

His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be at serious risk of decline.

Mr. Mounk’s interest in the topic began rather unusually. In 2014, he published a book, “Stranger in My Own Country.” It started as a memoir of his experiences growing up as a Jew in Germany, but became a broader investigation of how contemporary European nations were struggling to construct new, multicultural national identities.

He concluded that the effort was not going very well. A populist backlash was rising. But was that just a new kind of politics, or a symptom of something deeper?

. . . much more - worth a read

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Every democracy in history has failed and was followed by a dictatorship.....

The funny part is ours was said to be protected by the electoral college.

[smirkymonkey]

2. K&R