When Biden was President he warned that his political opponents were a threat to democracy itself. Similar accusations were levelled against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Indeed, many journalists and pundits claim that a threat to democracy is a global phenomenon. Conservatives have long criticized adversaries for being soft on crime, and liberals have slammed rivals for not caring about the poor; but to accuse the opposition of being 'a threat to democracy' seems to be a new low. But is it? Warnings like "Democracy will come to an end if you don't listen to me!" are almost as old as the idea that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.

Since the formation of the earliest democratic republic, in Athens, pundits have been warning citizens of its imminent demise. For instance, in Book VIII of Plato's Republic (c.380 BC), Socrates warns of democracy's soft-on-crime tendencies, infatuation with youth, and excesses of equality extremism: "Have you not observed how, in a democracy, many persons, although sentenced to exile, just stay where they are and walk about the world?... old men condescend to the young ... nor must I forget the equality of the two sexes... the excess of liberty passes to an excess of slavery... and so tyranny naturally arises out of democracy." And in Rome, the demise of the Republic seemed immanent when, after Marcus Livius Drusus was elected tribune in 121 BC, the friends of his rival Caius Gracchus cried foul. They accused Drusus of ballot tampering. In response, the supporters of Drusus chased down Caius and murdered him.

Democracy still had centuries of life in Greece and Rome, and the death predicted for democracy itself has never materialized. Yet democracies are born, and do die. How can we know if our own democracy is threatened?

The Emergence of Democracy