Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Wannabe Historian's avatar

What happens in Stage 5 basically means that Western democracies will have to face its achillies heel: social instability. Historically, this meant the rise of autocrats (symbolically symbolized by Emperor Augustus) and the political polarization/radicalization of society (i.e. French Third Republic). However, social instability is more of an achillies heel to autocracies than they are to democracies, especially the more voting power you give to the masses.

Expand full comment
Richard's avatar

Are there countries that could avoid the slide to stage 5 through a highly fertile religious subgroup? For example the Haredi in Israel and Amish/Mennonites/Mormons in US each year produce a higher share of births. Eventually they might be the majority.

Expand full comment
12 more comments...

No posts