In two of the main centres of democracy, America and Europe, democracy is rapidly failing. Off-shoot democracies are following suit. We may be entering an era when it becomes clear that democracies cannot run successful economies.
In America and Europe democracies came to be based on a balanced view of human nature: people are by nature selfish but self-government is possible because we are wise enough to restrain and control that selfishness.
James Madison, one of the founding fathers of American democracy, saw the frailty which threatened but also the countervailing qualities which could prevent disaster: “As there is a degree of
