As the dust settles following last month’s Brexit vote, elites seem to be coming to the same conclusion about what’s ailing the United Kingdom and the rest of the advanced capitalist world: an excess of democracy.

Appalled by the concurrent rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the ongoing success of European far right, and the continuing chaos in both of Britain’s major political parties, the pages of centrist opinion-making are chock full of pieces about democracy running amok.

Here are just a few examples, all published in the last several months: “Democracies end when they are too democratic” (Andrew Sullivan, New York magazine); “Britain’s democratic failure” (Kenneth Rogoff, the Boston Globe); “How American Politics Went Insane” (Jonathan Rauch, the Atlantic).