what happened since writing the book, it s depressing. it s the democrats moving up the learning curve. consider turk y a country in the early 20 0s seemed on a firm path towards democracy and liberalism anchored in a desire to be a full-fledged member of the the european union erdogan has launched various tax and regulatory actions against opponents in the media and declared one option group to be terrorists. the rulers of malaysia and philippines appear to be copying from that same playbook. of course, this is not the picture of democracy everywhere, but these tendencies can be spotted in far-flung areas. in countries like india and japan, which remain vie brandt democracies in most respects, there are elements of this new system creeping in.