Abstract
Nowadays the term ‘democracy ‘has become a widespread reality which is practically accepted everywhere. Even China's leaders argue that their country is on the path to democracy but “it needs time” (Wen Jiabao, China's Prime Minister).
Nevertheless many dictatorships still prevail and democratic regimes are still seeking complicated institutional engineering to avoid bad experiences of the past (like Hitler's takeover in 1933). Indeed, many intellectuals as Hannah Arendt believe that democracy and totalitarism are linked in many ways and that the former can contain the essence of the latter. Maybe our system is just an illusion, or maybe it is really democratic, but is a far more breakable concept than we think. This dossier deals with one of the greatest dangers of democracy, which was largely studied even before the real triumph of democracy but which is still disregarded today, and gives attention to the main instrument used to endanger democratic regimes. The so-called danger will be entitled “fear” and its implementation, “the press”.
