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Liberal democracy faces doubts. But collapse? Not likely
Democracy, it is often heard these days, is in crisis.
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It’s easy to perceive a global trend: workers of the world losing faith in the established order and dismayed by globalisation.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Serge Schmemann
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The election of Donald Trump and news of political turmoil in many other democracies have created the impression that liberal democracy is everywhere in retreat in the face of authoritarians feeding on discontent over economic woes, rapid social change, mass migration, disinformation and general malaise.
Austria could get its first far-right chancellor since World War II. France is on its fifth prime minister in three years, Germany is headed for elections that the chancellor is sure to lose, deeply unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada quit under pressure from his own party, a post-fascist government runs Italy, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary continues to proudly stomp on democracy, and populist parties seem to be making inroads in every corner of Europe. Elsewhere, there’s always more troubling news – from Israel, India, South Korea.
