Fears for democracy in capitalism crisis

Democracy can ebb quickly when it is associated with systemic failure, writes Mark Mazower

The worst crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s has reawakened grim memories on both sides of the Atlantic.

The ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt haunts Barack Obama’s United States. Historical arguments over whether FDR’s New Deal worked now form an important part of American debates over monetary and fiscal policy in general, and the US Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing in particular.