Authoritarian populists have seized power—from Turkey to Poland, and India to the United States—and things may get worse. Trust in democracy is wilting in many societies, to the point that rising numbers of people in Western democracies prefer military to representative rule. Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It, argues that stagnating living standards, corruption, social media, and a backlash against multiethnic governance are driving the public’s disenchantment with democracy. What sort of actions can be taken to restore the public’s commitment to self-government? Would regulation of social media or policies curbing inequality turn the tide? Mounk, a Harvard lecturer, visits Zócalo to discuss how the people can be convinced to love democracy again.
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The Takeaway
Democracy Is Under Siege—but Can Be Saved
Yascha Mounk Thinks the Globe’s Authoritarian Drift Can Be Reversed, If We Fix the Economy and Fight for Our Convictions
Several years before a certain Queens real estate tycoon became president, Yascha Mounk had a sense that the United States and other liberal democracies had arrived at “a moment of …