Telos 216 (Fall 2026): Dangers to Democracy

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Dear Telos readers,

As we watch riots and burning buildings in Europe, we might wonder where our democracies are heading. The breakdown of civil debate and social norms certainly poses serious dangers to liberal democracy. Many of the issues are continuations of the same problems that have plagued democracies since the original storming of the Bastille and the disastrous Athenian invasion of Sicily. Telos 216 delves into the dangers that our democracies are facing today: the decline of evidence-based reasoning, populist political polarization on the Left and the Right, rhetorical excesses, identity politics, rising antisemitism, AI, and terrorist enemies. There is a lot to worry about, and our issue attempts to take on each of these problems in turn. I hope it provides you with some valuable insights.

Regards,

David Pan
Editor, Telos

Telos 216 (Fall 2026): Dangers to Democracy

Introduction
David Pan

The Illiberal Turn on the Left: Speech Regulation, Racial Identity, and Anti-Imperialist Alliances as Epistemic Failures
Srđan M. Jovanović

The Rise of Critical Race Theory: An Empirical Assessment
Part I: From Educational Frustration to the Lost Decade
Phillip W. Magness and Williamson M. Evers

Democratizing or Destroying Democracy: Tocqueville and Contemporary Challenges in and to Democracies
Anthony Petros Spanakos

Mirroring the Image? Trump, Thucydides, and the Theater of Democracy
Gregory Melleuish and Susanna G. Rizzo

Imagine: The DSA, Israel, and the Politics of Redemption
Ross Lewin

Two Kinds of War: Ukraine, Gaza, and the Strategic Watershed
Russell A. Berman

Notes and Commentary

Esoteric Writing in the Age of Generative AI
Ethan Stoneman and Joseph C. Packer

Reviews

The Sacred and the Secular: Marcel Gauchet’s Theological-Political Lens on Democracy’s Post-Totalitarian Trajectory
Clifford Angell Bates, Jr.

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