Democracy in this sense – what many call “liberal democracy” – flourished only after the emergence of the nation-state and the popular upheaval and mobilization produced by the Industrial Revolution. So it should come as no surprise that the crisis of liberal democracy that many of its oldest practitioners currently are experiencing is a reflection of the stress under which the nation-state finds itself.
从这个角度讲，民主——许多人所谓的“自由民主”——只有在工业革命引起民族国家的出现和群众剧变和动员后才可能发生。因此，许多自由民主的最老牌实践国目前正在经历自由民主的危机并不令人惊奇，这只是民族国家发现自己身处压力中的反映。