If Democracy Can’t Solve the Problems People Face, They’ll Turn to Authoritarianism and Fascism Instead

The Age of Instability

Is democracy still capable of solving the world’s great problems? I know. It’s a strange, funny, absurd question. But I mean it like this: if democracy can’t solve the problems people face — then they will turn to authoritarianism and fascism instead. And that way lies the abyss. And yet we already see the world on the first steps of this path — around the globe, people are beginning to give up on democracy, and turn to backwards, regressive, violent, and undemocratic forms of political economy.

Hence, before us lies an age of instability. One where journalists are tortured, murdered, dismembered. But I think we are not fully seeing the stakes yet — enough of us, at least. The survival of democracy is very much in question at this juncture in history. And that is because democracy itself has not been nourished, and so it is withering, like an unwatered tree. Let me explain what I mean.

One of the many things we are going to have to rethink after this era is the history of democracy itself. If we are a little more honest about it, democracy is not a thing that has been with us since time immemorial. In realistic and mature terms, the reign of democracy has barely lasted a few…