Is America on the brink of political collapse?

In today’s The Big Story podcast, political collapse is an order of magnitude different than, say, “a troubled democracy” or even “a hard right government.” It means the end of democracy, a massive reordering of what that nation — and when that nation is America, by extension, the world — looks like.

David Moscrop is the author of Too Dumb For Democracy. “The state of institutions gives a good sense about whether or not the country itself has a shot at doing the things that countries are meant to do: deliver on the welfare state, provide national defence, collect taxes, ensure private property rights” says Moscrop, “And once they start to go, you get a death cycle, and once that sets in its really hard to reverse.” 

It’s hard to wrap your mind around it, especially for those of us who have lives, and families and jobs and not a lot of time to ruminate on the future of democracy. But if it isn’t our job to confront it, surely it’s the job of our leaders, or politicians who hope to avert the worst-case scenario. Are they talking about it? Preparing for it? What exactly would political collapse look like in America and elsewhere? And would we recognize it before it’s too late?

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