From the unexpected collapse of East Asian economies to Balkan horrors, recent events suggest how easy it might be for a world that is not well led to careen off track. More to the point, the quality of public leadership is now problematic in many countries. Whether the caliber of leaders has actually declined is a matter of debate, but there is no doubt that exercising leadership with authority has become more difficult. Public distrust of officials and institutions has grown to alarming levels in almost every industrialized nation. Some media outlets have become ravenous for gossip and hints of scandal.
Political parties fragment and polarize.
Moral considerations can seem almost quaint. Not surprisingly, countries such as the United States are witnessing a decline of civic engagement and investment in social capital. Like the twenty-first century, the twentieth began with a surge of optimism about prospects for peace and prosperity. Democracy was on the march, and trade accounted for even larger proportions of many national economies than today. Yet we now look back upon the 1900s as among the bloodiest decades in human history.