Liberal Democracy Is Staging a Comeback

Chris Kleponis – Pool Via Cnp/CNP via ZUMA

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Fears of military coups to the contrary, Donald Trump is gone. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is facing a united opposition for the first time. More and more countries are getting fed up with Xi Jinping’s autocratic nationalism. Boris Johnson’s worst impulses seem to have been neutered.
For the last year or three, it’s been common to bemoan the decline of Western democracy. Exhibits A-F were the various nationalist populists who had taken power in countries around the world. But it doesn’t look nearly as bad these days, does it? It’s true that the news isn’t all good: Jair Bolsonaro is still screeching around in Brazil and Poland is still controlled by the deeply illiberal Law and Justice party. But the news is never all good. Generally speaking, liberal democracy sure seems a whole lot more resilient than it did a few years ago.