It seems to me that Fareed Zakaria is on the right track, namely that democracy may not necessarily be disappearing, but liberal democracy is. When you look at the places around the world that have been recently becoming more and more authoritarian, whether that be Poland, the Phillipines, Turkey, or even to some extent America, it’s not the case that tanks are rolling through the streets and soldiers are taking people from their homes. All of those countries have regularly scheduled elections that are largely free and fair, yet authoritarianism keeps winning at the ballot box. It’s my belief that capitalism is largely to blame for this, particularly the income stagnation and general absurdity that has arisen from late capitalism. To put it in the most reductive and simplified way possible, it has caused people around the world to feel as though they have lost all agency and control over their lives and the world around them, and so they turn to populists and demagogues who promise to be their champion, in return for the people granting them even greater power. We’re seeing this scenario play out all across the globe, particularly in Europe these past couple years, though I don’t think many Americans paid attention until it happened in their own backyards. While I can see the crisis, I can’t see a solution besides the dismantling of the capitalist system, either in part (ala the return of New Deal/Keynesian economics) or completely (socialism). Democracy isn’t imperiled, but liberal democracy is currently on its knees.