Marc Plattner

The 2010 International Meeting in Political Studies invites us to consider the impact of the economic crisis on the future of the market economy and democracy. When the crisis first hit in the United States in 2008, there was widespread speculation that it might undermine democratic regimes, especially newer and less consolidated ones; that it would prompt much greater state intervention in the economy and a turn away from reliance on free markets; and that it would severely discredit both democracy and free markets in the realm of ideas and legitimacy.

The ultimate outcome of the revolutions that have swept the Arab World during the past half year remains almost impossible to predict, yet they have already had a dramatic impact on global perceptions of the fortunes of democracy. For these revolutions—if that is indeed the right term to describe them—broke out at a moment when democracy seemed to be mired in a period of decline.