The more unequal societies become, the more likely we are to hear from the demophobes. This would strike a chord with my great-grandparents’ generation. It would also sound familiar to America’s Founding Fathers. ‘The newfound aversion to democratic institutions among rich citizens in the West may be no more than a return to the historical norm,’ write Yascha Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa.53 To put it more bluntly: when inequality is high, the rich fear the mob.
