ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the more general lessons from the case studies regarding the crisis of democracy facing society today, suggesting democracy in its market-liberal incarnation has come to be understood by those excluded from participation as a veil to maintain elite privilege. In this scenario, political leaders, both left and right, will feel emboldened to bend, and break with, liberal democratic standards to bypass opponents. Moreover, they are likely to receive popular support for doing so. Democracy is thus at a critical juncture. The chapter re-frames the conundrum facing democracy by asking “if the norms of market democracy are set so as to provide the perfect environment for the protection of entrenched elite interests and the free mobility of capital, which in turn fosters inequalities, exclusion and recurring economic and environmental crises, and if challenging elite interests triggers power struggles that see liberal norms being bent, how can democracy be saved?” The chapter finishes with a discussion of future avenues of cross-regional comparative analysis between Latin America’s and Europe’s crisis of democracy.
