Dominance and Oppression: giant boot crushing silhouetted crowd against a stark red background.

It is hard enough to promote or save democracy when the public is relatively united in its desire to do so. The experience of the “color revolutions” in former Soviet Republics offers powerful evidence for that proposition.

It may seem almost impossible to do so when much of the public is disillusioned with the democratic system in which they live or when they are, at best, indifferent.

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The Fulcrum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform covering efforts to fix our governing systems.