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Is the US dictator-proof?
The many vulnerabilities, and enduring strengths, of America’s republic.
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If Americans believe that their constitution alone can safeguard the republic from a Caesar on the Potomac, then they are too sanguine, says the writer.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
The Economist
How has it come to this? After victory in the Cold War, the American model seemed unassailable. A generation on, Americans themselves are losing confidence in it.
Feckless war-making, a financial crisis and institutional rot have let loose a ferocity in America’s politics that has given presidential contests seemingly existential stakes. Americans have heard their leaders denounce the integrity of their democracy.
