Our current crisis may look similar to the 1970s, but it stems from the government having too much power, not too little
National crises can reveal the landscape of power in a society, and how it’s changing. Who’s losing power and who’s gaining it; who has less power than was previously thought; and who has more.
A crisis can alter the distribution of power or accelerate changes that are already under way. In a democracy, if voters like the new world the crisis has created, it endures.
Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
