The Danger of Deconsolidation: How Much Should We Worry?

Issue Date July 2016
Volume 27
Issue 3
Page Numbers 18-23
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In this issue of the Journal of Democracy, Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk write that the citizens of many countries are becoming dissatisfied with democracy and increasingly open to nondemocratic alternatives. Although I agree with Foa and Mounk’s central claim that public faith in democracy has eroded during the past two decades while support for nondemocratic alternatives has risen, their data suggest that this phenomenon is, in large part, a specifically American period effect. The United States is distinctive because in recent years U.S. democracy has become appallingly dysfunctional. In fact, evidence from some key indicators suggests that the mass basis of support for democracy is growing stronger.

About the Author

Ronald F. Inglehart, Amy and Alan Lowenstein Professor of Democracy, Democratization, and Human Rights at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and codirector of the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia, directs the World Values Survey, which has surveyed representative national samples of the publics of 97 countries.

View all work by Ronald Inglehart