If you're like me, you'll always be aware of the troubled democracy of the moment, and be hoping they can make it through their troubles. I noticed after working on electoral reform for nearly two decades that there is an interesting downside to being a news consumer.

It is easy to remember the troubled democracies in the news. After the global financial crisis it would rotate between Greece, Spain, Hungary and Poland.

Economist cover with the word Greece missing its letters, euro signs falling toward the Parthenon
Economist cover headlined Acropolis now, helicopters over the Parthenon and Angela Merkel in the corner
Economist cover headlined Europe's Achilles heel, an ancient Greek warrior with an arrow in his heel beside a ballot box
Economist cover headlined The Greek run, a runner with a torch setting fire to a euro banknote
Economist cover headlined If Greece goes, a man in a suit with a briefcase stepping into a drain

The many covers of the Economist when Greece was in trouble

As of 2026 I'd consider all those countries to basically be off the list. The country of the moment actually seems to be Germany, which is kind of funny because after the global financial crisis Germany was treated like the only adult in the room.

The Economist's country of the year for 2023, a globe wearing a gold crown
Greece won the Economist's country of the year in 2023.

However, in the last 20 years the US and UK just seem to go from bad to worse. I actually do think both countries can get through this, even with their dumb electoral systems causing chaos.

There's Extremists In Government!

Yeah, and that's part of why it works.

My theory on why countries with proportional representation seem to be able to escape populism is that it lets your country experiment with extremism in the safer form of a coalition. If anything as crazy as January 6th or Brexit happens, the political mainstream seems to pull the plug. Notably the insurrectionists in Korea and Brazil went to jail, even though both countries are very young democracies with troubled origins.

People also get to experience disappointment. Part of Nigel Farage's whole trick is that even though he got the car wreck that he wanted, he always got to say, "It'd be different if I drove the car into the wall". You never get to call their bluff and say, "Well, you were the foreign minister in that coalition government, and it wasn't good".

Whenever AfD does finally get to form government in Germany, there will be a media freakout. A few years afterwards, when German citizens vote them out, there won't be any recognition that Germany didn't seppuku itself with a Brexit or the Trump presidencies.

Yeah, I've put that prediction down in writing, it's not always going to be right but the odds are good.

The Wheel

I wanted to illustrate this dynamic, where we forget the many, many countries with ProRep that are just ticking over with a functional, normal government while the ones with First Past the Post are so obviously struggling. Sure they might have dabbled, sure they have problems, but you know what? <Pick a peer democracy> still had a better couple of political decades than the UK or US.

The video featuring the wheel

I thought of this wheel idea quite a while back. Jeremy Flatt liked the idea and made a physical version of it so he could argue with everyone outside a supermarket in Yellowknife.

So I spent a few hours with Claude making a digital one below. I'm honestly really curious how it goes for people, and I'd be really interested to see if a supporter of First Past the Post spins the wheel and goes, "Oh well, I'd take the United States over Switzerland because I like my politics with more shootings" or something.

Anyway, give it a spin and check out the video I made with Fair Vote on proportional representation.

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