It is easy to point out all the problems with the US-led Summit for Democracy taking place this week (28-30 March). For a start, several participants are in the process of dismantling their democracies.
Israel has been plunged into crisis by Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken the country’s independent judiciary. Allies of Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, have expelled the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi from parliament, and he could well be jailed before next year’s elections. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, is pushing through legislative reforms that will undermine electoral oversight and could threaten the country’s already fragile democratic system.