Current political developments challenge the assumption that Americans naturally yearn for democracy.

The U.S. political system has become dominated by right-wing and left-wing populism, in which both nationalist and socialist ideologies aim to transform a representative democracy into a popular autocracy. In a 21st-century version of fascist and communist mythology, the public is bombarded with promises that utopia is just over the horizon if the political or economic “establishment” is ousted and power is vested in national saviors.