First, I think it'd be good to separate the Western world from the rest of the world. The West has been meddling with other countries' governments for centuries, such that it's impossible to say that true democracy ever existed outside the West. Is it better or worse today than it was 50 years ago? Hard to say... What seems to be the case though is that more countries are escaping the West's sphere of influence than 20 years ago (after the collapse the USSR, only the West remained).
In Western countries, I think it's an issue to link the rise of national sentiment to a decline in democracy. Disinformation is certainly a thing, but for it to work, I believe there needs to be a general discontent with current politics such that people are using the urns for exactly what democracy has been designed to do: change government when people are unhappy with it.
US democracy will be in danger the day when access to some information is prohibited or some parties are forbidden, which is far from being the case.
These people at MIT forget that most republicans are fairly moderate, and a good chunk of Trump voters would have voted for Bernie Sanders if he had been nominated.
In Western countries, I think it's an issue to link the rise of national sentiment to a decline in democracy. Disinformation is certainly a thing, but for it to work, I believe there needs to be a general discontent with current politics such that people are using the urns for exactly what democracy has been designed to do: change government when people are unhappy with it.
US democracy will be in danger the day when access to some information is prohibited or some parties are forbidden, which is far from being the case.
These people at MIT forget that most republicans are fairly moderate, and a good chunk of Trump voters would have voted for Bernie Sanders if he had been nominated.