What's the most plausible timeline in which democracy is seen in the 21st-century West as a form of dangerous extremism, much like communism is IOTL?
What's the most plausible timeline in which democracy is seen in the 21st-century West as a form of dangerous extremism, much like communism is IOTL?
What's the most plausible timeline in which democracy is seen in the 21st-century West as a form of dangerous extremism, much like communism is IOTL?
What's the most plausible timeline in which democracy is seen in the 21st-century West as a form of dangerous extremism, much like communism is IOTL?
It might require, to be frank, a democracy that's rather different from what we know and understand. And you'd need one hell of a POD, or set of them, at that. So, possibly no U.S.A. or French Revolution to begin with.
Don't confuse populism with democracy!
The other option is to have Communism function whilst Democracy swings back and forth between brutal authoritarian King-For-Life brutality, or complete and utter chaos as policies swing back and forth.
Make it dysfunctional, and make Communism work. Simples
I will be easier to make universal suffrage as populism: only could vote those who finished basic education, have a job, have an estate or any combination of these requirements.
Perhaps not quite close enough, but how about a surviving Cromwellian British Republic? By no means was it really democratic, but if it became the poster boy for republicanism then it could provide an interesting effect in making enlightened absolutism the "go to" for revolutionaries and reformers.
But if it survives, that would give democracy staying power, something it didn't have until much later IOTL. Part of what drove people in both Britain (post-Cromwell) and France (post-Revolution) into supporting restored monarchy was the sense of stability it seemed to offer in contrast to republics. Having Cromwell's state last for good would seem to bolster the case for democracy if anything.