IF you come from a generation that witnessed the collapse of communism and the triumph of Western democracy, it may be hard to fathom how we could be posing the question that features on this week’s cover. And yet Americans have heard their own leaders denounce the integrity of their democracy. They have seen fellow citizens try to block the transfer of power from one administration to the next. Over the past quarter-century, feckless war-making, a financial crisis and institutional rot have let loose a ferocity in America’s politics that has given presidential contests seemingly existential stakes.

The word “dictator” conjures up the 20th century’s worst despots. We could have played on that association, with a generalissimo’s peaked cap and a “USA” badge, or a Nuremberg rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.