Gray area: How does democracy do in an aging society?

Democracies and brutal dictatorships alike have managed to industrialize their economies, but freedom and the rule of law have been essential for the jump into advanced prosperity. Singapore is arguably the sole, tiny (population: 4.3 million) exception to that rule; China�s Communist Party is betting it can shape the first giant one.

But how well does democracy work once countries enter what you might call the AARP stage of life? We don�t know. It�s the key question reflected in the political turmoil roiling Europe, Japan and the United States.