A new form of democracy is on the rise in the 21st-century world. Its features are disturbing: elections are held every five years or so; a winner is announced who then goes on to consolidate his power at the expense of national institutions. Media freedoms are curtailed, judicial independence undermined, security apparatuses corralled to serve the governing clique, and civil society incapacitated. Those who protest are crushed, arrested, and jailed, undermining open debate, the keystone for any democratic system. And then, the time comes for another round of elections where the cycle begins again.
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