The number of countries defined as ‘full democracies’ has declined so much since 2007 that the great debate today is whether we are in a democratic recession or full-blown depression
“Never before has our nation enjoyed, at once, so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats,” Bill Clinton exulted in his last State of the Union address, on January 27, 2000. The Nasdaq had reached 4,000, a nearly sixfold increase in seven years. Unemployment had shrunk to 3%, the lowest in more than a generation. Having borne the burden of the Cold War, the American people were now reaping the peace dividend. The Republicans’ champion, George W Bush, offered “compassionate conservatism” as an alternative to Democrats’ “compassionate liberalism”.