Emeritus Prof Christopher MayMar 17

The Varieties of Democracy project at GothenbergU confirms what many have been saying/thinking for years:

the US & Europe are heading towards autocracy (often arriving because voters have supported explicit autocratic leaders in elections).

The Q. is how does one defend democracy against this wave of (renewed) quasi-dictatorship?

One key answer is our political class(es) need to stop colluding with the Far Right & *actually* support democracy!

#democracy #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog

‘Trump is aiming for dictatorship’. That’s the verdict of the world’s most credible democracy watchdog

Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin

The Guardian
Show threadSimon JohnsonMar 17

@ChrisMayLA6 maybe proposing some measures to introduce democracy rather than this 5-yearly sham of a reverse beauty contest in which most voters only have the choice of the least worst and are then put back in their box, excluded from any meaningful discussion by a perfidious media that spouts only court gossip, a governing class that holds citizens in contempt and a political system that embodies privilege & corruption

Radical democratic reform inc citizens assemblies would be a start

Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher May

@Simon318ppm

I don't disagree, but how one introduces such shifts is the issue; I worked in the early 1990s for Charter 88 agitating for constitutional change to reinforce democratic politics & it taught me how difficult that would be

Mar 17 at 8:26amWeb