Economic Volatility Pushes Liberal Democracies to the Breaking Point

Liberal democracy is under pressure from a systemic crisis tied to weakening shared prosperity and growing distance between working-class voters and political institutions. The source material frames the problem as structural rather than episodic, arguing that economic frustration has become a central driver of political instability.

According to the analysis, a key turning point has been a shift in political attention away from class-based economic concerns and toward identity-centered discourse. It says this rebalancing has weakened the social contract by leaving core material issues less directly addressed, widening the gap between policy priorities set by elites and the economic needs of the broader population.

Economic misalignment and the social contract