2014-04-20 13:59
“There seems little prospect of persuading democracies that they should make sufficient sacrifices now to deal with a threat that most citizens do not experience as immediate. David Runciman is pessimistic that democracies can change. If they are to continue to survive in the future, they may need a lot of luck. Yet even if they do not offer us much hope that we really can change our circumstances and master our fate, they still offer much more hope than do any of the alternatives. So we are stuck with them.”
W e are all democrats now. This was not always so. After the world was proclaimed safe for democracy in 1918, democracy was soon in retreat, and by 1942 there were only twelve democracies left. Yet since 1945 and 1989, it has been autocratic systems of government which have been in retreat. Today, 1…