The poor are now democracy’s strongest fans, the rich its biggest sceptics. In 1995, just 5 per cent of wealthy Americans believed army rule would be a good thing. By 2014 that had more than tripled. An even higher share of upper-income millennials support autocracy. People tend to form political beliefs in their early years and then stick with them for life. If today’s rich young are tomorrow’s thought leaders, democracy has a shaky future. This survey’s data only goes up to 2014. If it had been taken after Trump and Brexit, the gulf between how rich and poor see democracy would be even
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