if you look 20, 30 or 40 years ahead, we are almost certainly going to continue having elections. the elections will still have lots of sound and fury and talk of change, but the technology and structures of modern life will mean that the change that can be accomplished by voting will be very limited. the system that exists may not be either democratic or authoritarian, but rather a kind of ‘half-life’ democracy that could continue existing for a long time.

david runciman,
how democracy ends.