bavius: Increasingly, what we call 'liberal democracy' has in fact been replaced by an all-encompassing corporatocracy. There is often little real interest on the part of our politicians in the issues facing and views held by ordinary citizens. In the U.S., politicians won't impose even minor gun control laws despite polling indicating massive public support for such laws. In Canada, the government, beholden to corporations that want to undermine wages (if truth be told), refuses to campaign on, seek public input into or obtain social license for our controversial immigration and foreign worker  programs. We in the West can hardly complain when voters elsewhere turn their backs on liberal democracy when our own leaders are mainly interested in manipulating the system to obtain outcomes desired by the political and corporate classes. We've largely given up on democracy as well.