The American model has been in decline for some time. Since the mid-1990s, American politics has become increasingly polarized and gridlocked, which prevents it from performing basic government functions, such as passing a budget. The US system has obvious problems -- the influence of money on politics, the influence of a voting system that is increasingly incompatible with democratic choice -- but it seems unable to reform itself. Early crises such as the Civil War and the Great Depression produced visionary institution-building leaders; That was not the case in the early decades of the 21st century, when US policymakers presided over two catastrophes -- the Iraq war and the subprime financial crisis -- and then witnessed the emergence of a short-sighted demagogue to foment angry populist movements.
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