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Democracy7m7-reveillonpg, it is often heard these days, is in crisis.

The election of Donald Trump and news of political turmoil in many other democracies has created the impression that liberal democracy is everywhere in retreat in the face of authoritarians feeding on discontent over economic woes, rapid social change, mass migration, disinformation and general malaise.

Austria could get its first far-right chancellor since World War II. France is on its fifth prime minister in three years, Germany is headed for elections the chancellor is sure to lose, the deeply unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada quit under pressure from his own party, a post-fascist government runs Italy, Viktor Orban of Hungary continues to proudly stomp on democracy, and populist parties seem to be making inroads in every corner of Europe. Elsewhere there’s always more troubling news — from Israel, India, South Korea.

It’s easy to perceive a global trend: workers of the world losing faith in the established order and dismayed by globalization, rushing for the extremes and rallying behind populists.

While some of the judges appeared to acknowledge the substance of the attorney general’s case, several of the panel’s questions suggested concern about whether the office had exceeded its jurisdiction. And the tenor of many of their questions indicated the possibility that the court could whittle down the huge judgment and potentially deal a blow to the attorney general, Letitia James.

“It is hard to travel in Europe these days, or even to live in Washington,66br casino without recognizing that liberal democracy is now in serious trouble in the world,” a Times columnist once wrote in these pages. “We are living in a time of widespread doubt about the capacity of free societies to deal with the economic, political and philosophical problems of the age.”

Many readers would agree. In fact, many did in June 1975, almost a half century ago, when James Reston wrote those words. But democracy did not founder then, and while there is no question that it is facing serious challenges today, it is another question whether they amount to a universal democratic backsliding or worse: liberal democracy in danger of collapse.

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But as The Times’s Berlin bureau chief Jim Tankersley suggested in a recent analysis of Germany’s plight, “not all malaise is the same.” Popular discontent in Western democracies may have broadly similar sources, but the political consequences are as different as the leaders and systems in each country. And it is ultimately leaders who shape the outcomes, argues Larry M. Bartels, the author of “Democracy Erodes From the Top.” Public opinion, he suggests, is less an active wave than a passive reservoir to which leaders respond — or which the less principled exploit. “I think there’s always a tendency on the part of observers to see deep meaning in terms of shifts in public opinion,” Mr. Bartels said in an interview. “It turns out that it’s more country-specific than outside observers are likely to grant.”

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