Will Democracy Self-Destruct?
Setup
In the last decade, the people of democratic societies across the globe have elected autocratic leaders. These populist strongmen have undermined democratic institutions with a disregard for the rule of law, expertise, and the truth. Is their election the symptom of already advanced societal illnesses, or is it the disease itself? In countries where the damage to democracy is incremental, from where will the urgency to address this challenge come? And where autocratic leaders have exacerbated divisions within their societies, what can be done to knit them back together along shared democratic principles?
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