Political Scientist Sheri Berman Argues Scholars Failed to Predict Democratic Crisis

American political scientist Sheri Berman states that scholars should have predicted the current crisis threatening democracies in previously stable regions. In an article for the Journal of Democracy and an upcoming book, the professor at Barnard College of Columbia University argues that a buildup of social and economic dissatisfaction in Western democracies created a vulnerability that experts overlooked. Berman notes that the United States and Western Europe were long viewed as stable systems that might evolve but were unlikely to regress. She explains that when citizens feel democratic institutions and traditional political parties no longer meet their needs, they become more receptive to the appeals of populists, radicals, and extremists. Berman describes antidemocratic leaders as both symptoms of this underlying dissatisfaction and agents who deepen societal divisions. To trigger a new wave of democratization, she suggests that the public must recognize that populist leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro do not deliver on their promises and believe that the opposition offers a better alternative. She compares the role of politicians to that of a plumber, stating they must diagnose and fix problems to prevent public irritation.