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E.J. Dionne: The ominous decline of social democracy

The rise of Donald Trump was shocking but it was not a one-off. The forces that brought him to power have parallels across democracies as fears about immigration, inward-looking nationalism and discontent over economic globalization push an ever-larger share of voters to the far right.

For American progressives, it is especially disturbing that social democracy, one of the most humane political movements of the last century, is losing ground almost everywhere. What can we learn from its decline?

Social democracy has been conducive to free societies because it is principled about its goals but pragmatic about how to reach them.