&gt; A question I like to pose: If the US system is truly unsustainable (American-style democracies are rare and have all failed save one...so far)<p>What possible concrete definition of &quot;American-style democracies&quot; is there for which this is both true and meaningful (e.g., its trivially true but clearly not meaningful if the definition is so narrow that the US is the only &quot;American-style&quot; democracy that has ever existed.)