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The most important statements are often those that are left unsaid. Among the millions of words spoken at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the comment that nobody quite dared to utter was clear. After the crisis of 2007-09, the global capitalist system is in a period of transition, comparable to the great transitions of the 1930s and 1970s.

The question that nobody wants to raise is whether the new model of capitalism that emerges to dominate the world will be a radically reformed version of the Western democratic system or some variant of the authoritarian state-led capitalism favoured in China, Russia and many other emerging economies.

As a leading US diplomat told me: “Since the crisis, developing countries have lost interest in the old Washington...