But these are not failures of democracy; they are failures of governance.
We glean lessons from failures of democracy in inter-war Europe, Venezuela, Russia, and other cases, and we consider the possibility of democratic erosion in contemporary Europe and the United States.
To others, Saramago has taken on the role of a more universal conscience, giving his literary fables about the failures of democracy or the tyranny of corporations a broader reach.
He then defines four scripts to help explain which kinds of novels historically have been candidates for Great American status: stories that get retold ("The Scarlet Letter"), American Dream narratives ("The Great Gatsby"), ones that center upon racial or social divisions ("Beloved"), and ones that dramatize the promises and failures of democracy ("Moby-Dick").
Other Indian writers have seen the rise of these forces as exemplars of the failures of democracy, as totems of the frustration that has built up over the 50 years of Indian independence as governments have failed, dismally so, to tackle the daunting problems of poverty, of illiteracy, and of disease, that were inherited from colonial rule.
They effectively show that most failures of democracy in the last century didn't appear suddenly and obviously, like a coup.
Bridging literary, historical, economic and technological perspectives, this two-day conference examines the successes, and failures, of democracies, and analyzes a possible return of anti-democratic trends, both in present-day Europe and internationally.
