AI and Markets Fuel Mobocracy

A civic‑risk hypothesis: rapid economic and technological disruption (global markets, automation, and AI) can create mass economic dislocation and cultural stress that make populations more susceptible to collective rage and demagoguery, eroding institutional checks and producing 'mob rule'. The dynamic is cross‑ideological: both left‑wing and right‑wing movements can channel the same structural grievances into extra‑institutional pressure. — If true, policymakers must pair technological and industrial policy with institutional resilience (legal safeguards, civic education, safety nets) to prevent democratic breakdowns as economies transform.