Michael MorrisCynics, I am often tempted to believe, deserve the dysfunction it pleases them to think is the inevitable product of democracy. Populists fashionably gloating over the supposed failures of Western liberal democracy are really capitulating to an inertia that only worsens every difficulty. Cynics fail to see that the freedom to make mistakes is the very freedom needed to correct them. The real crisis ― as Keeve makes clear ― is not infrastructure per se but economic growth, “as the infrastructure is collapsing, its breakdown is depressing economic growth and discouraging investment”. Behind every leaky pipe and stalled project is a political decision.