Blog

It is difficult to pass judgment on the health of democracy today without an assessment of the Arab revolts. Despite the stirring images of courageous, sophisticated, and articulate protesters running great personal risk for a less-repressed future, the essential meaning of the region’s reforms is still profoundly contested.

While the crisis in the sovereign bond markets has calmed down in the wake of the European Central Bank’s decision to step in with potentially unlimited bond purchases, the political challenges in the euro area are growing. Democratic legitimacy across the euro zone is under threat in at least three respects.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against retrenchment in Europe and North America. Economic crises and domestic political stagnation absorb energy and consume financial resources. Global military engagements in faraway places cost lives and treasure and often yield limited success. There is growing disillusionment with democracy promotion.

Nicolás Maduro’s narrow victory in Venezuela’s presidential election raises an important question (quite apart from the opposition’s question as to whether Maduro really won): Can populism thrive without a genuinely popular, charismatic leader, or are movements like Chávismo doomed to fade into insignificance once they have lost their quasi-deities?