Populism Can Wreck Democratic Capitalism

If populist, demagogic governments are elected repeatedly and use state power to weaken institutions, the long‑standing reconciliation between market capitalism and democratic governance can shift from damaged to effectively broken, making restoration harder and more costly. Combined with concentrated technological shocks (notably AI) and fiscal strains (e.g., in large eurozone economies), this creates a multi‑vector crisis risk that is political, economic, and institutional. — Frames the current moment as a compound‑risk: political legitimacy loss (from populism) plus systemic economic shock (from AI/fiscal crises) that together threaten the survivability of democratic capitalism.