Social theories

A large global survey issued on Friday showed a surge in despair and disillusionment with established politics, particularly among young American men, the only US population group to turn more conservative over the past decade.

Despite the hyperbole and possible motives of some of those who drafted the motion passed by the European Parliament, the rule of law and the quality of the news media are a serious concern for all Greek citizens.

Since 1992, Francis Fukuyama has often been called upon to explain how his prediction of the definitive dominance of the liberal democracy model after the fall of communism has been tested by events - by the internal convulsions in Western democracies and by the apparent success of authoritarian regimes such as China. But his theory has never lost its appeal.

The Greek Revolution of the 1820s was the first liberal-national movement to succeed in the Old World of Europe - after the United States, more or less at the same time as the similar liberation movements in South America (between 1811 and 1825), and before every one of the new nation-states that would soon become the norm throughout Europe.

It has plenty of good reasons for doing so. Fidesz has not only dismantled democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, but also demonised the EU as a tyrannical institution that is supposedly robbing Europeans of their freedom.

By 1989, the verdict was clear: the Soviet Union had atrophied much faster than the US, and its empire collapsed, the victim of its own errors and contradictions.

Today, the concept of competitive decay of ideological and political models seems to be relevant once again.

Opposition circles, or the "other half of Turkey," are suffering from post-system change trauma. It is not just the end of the parliamentary system and the authoritarian sway that has been sealed after the July 2016 coup attempt and the April 2017 referendum, everybody feels a deeper transformation of the political regime underway.

Much has been said about the rise of populism across Europe and America in the last three to five years, tracing its roots to economic inequalities, excessive political correctness, cultural imperialism and uncontrolled migration.

On the one hand, we have dozens of public opinion polls pointing to the fact that the government is no longer popular, that it has lost much of its credibility and is lagging significantly behind New Democracy in voter preference, to the extent that many experts believe the situation is irreversible and Greece is facing early elections.

The election is over. Now we know which direction Turkey is heading in, along with the construction of a new regime.