More broadly, persistent inequality has grown more intolerable in all these countries, especially among the unemployed and underemployed young, against the backdrop of a global economic slowdown. A protester wearing a mask depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a protest in Hong Kong. Credit:AP If it's hard to pinpoint a unifying cause behind the simultaneous protests, it is possible to dispel one myth. The unrest hasn't erupted, as the New York Times suggested last week, because "the expansion of democracy has stalled globally." Such assessments owe too much to a conservative notion of democracy. Upheld by Cold War institutions such as Freedom House, this idea confuses democracy with elections and other procedural matters. It fails to grasp that democracy is, above all, a social sentiment, a potentially revolutionary demand for equality and dignity -- what by the 20th century in the West had ended millennia of rule by kings and the feudal landowning class.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the sharpest analyst of democracy, prophesied that it was the inescapable fate of all societies, no matter how deeply hierarchical. He was clear that having "destroyed monarchy and aristocracy," democracy would not "stop short before the bourgeoisie and the rich." The practical challenge is how to make mass democracy compatible with individual liberty... Indeed, the European bourgeoisie and the rich of the 19th century spent much energy trying to contain democracy, and to keep ordinary people, especially the industrial working classes and women, in their place. Walter Bagehot, celebrated editor of the Economist, wrote obsessively on "what securities against democracy we can create." A broader suffrage beyond the propertied classes was mooted, and some social security offered to the struggling poor. But one political shock after another revealed that, as Tocqueville wrote, people in the democratic age "have an ardent, insatiable, eternal, invincible passion" for equality, and that "they will tolerate poverty, enslavement, barbarism, but they will not tolerate aristocracy." This intolerance is again evident in the furious anti-elite revolts in the West today.

It is even more strikingly manifest in the post-colonial world, which since the Arab Spring has hosted the world's biggest mass upsurges. Democracy on the march - again. A woman holds a flag as anti-government protesters gather in Iraq. Credit:AP Those above the age of 40 can recall a time in Asia and Africa when extreme deference, if not fear, marked the relationship between rulers and the ruled, rich and poor, and upper and lower classes and castes. Assured of immunity, the wealthy and powerful got away with murder -- sometimes literally. A small, incestuous elite stole from the state's coffers and splurged in London, New York and Paris, boosting the profits of real estate agents, Harrods and Bloomingdale's, not to mention party planners and glamorous escort services. A reminder of those good times for the Suhartos, Bhuttos and Mubaraks of the Third World is provided today by Lebanon's recently departed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who allegedly showered a $16 million gift on a bikini model he met at a luxury resort in the Seychelles.

Even in India, supposedly the world's largest democracy, a single family dominated politics for decades, including a loyal few in its network of patronage but excluding countless others. Visitors marvelled at the infinite forbearance of the degraded and suffering millions, wondering why they did not mutiny against their cruel masters. Social hierarchies finally began to crack faster from the 1990s, with broader politicisation and the growth of literacy, satellite television channels and digital media. Massive street protests against a corrupt ruling elite in India in 2011 were the first sign that Indian society and politics were about to be radically transformed. Indeed, the protests set the stage for Narendra Modi, who rose to power denouncing venal and inept dynasts and claiming to represent their victims. Likewise, massive social unrest over bus fare hikes in Brazil paved the way for Jair Bolsonaro. There is no guarantee that the current upsurge against ruling elites won't empower demagogues. In late 19th century Europe, far-right and anti-Semitic movements also hijacked the demand for democracy, marginalising left-leaning and liberal parties. The practical challenge, now as much as then, is how to make mass democracy compatible with individual liberty -- how to find political and economic institutions capable of deploying the tremendous energy of social mobilisation for the larger good.

In the meantime, we should resist concluding that democracy is in decline. For, if democracy means rule of the people, and a demand for social equality, then we are witnessing its flowering in the most populous parts of the world. Bloomberg