@Alon @DiegoBeghin @MisuseCase @kentwillard Poland was just ruled by a near fascist political party for 8 years, and is now suffering the hangover that comes when liberal feel they have to resort to procedurally hardball means to uproot what near fascists entrenched, contributing to a risk of continuing polarizarion. In Romania, the fastest growing political party is neofash AUR.

@Alon @DiegoBeghin @MisuseCase @kentwillard The Baltics are great, in a way I think that belies your generalization about hinterland petite bourgeoisie. The Baltics have a high degree of local cohesion and control, which has yielded extraordinarily good governance, despite by rights being an EU hinterland. Localist outcomes (like density outcomes) depend a great deal on initial conditions. Good initial conditions get magnified, but so do bad.