Dictators are falling. Democracies are failing. A curious coincidence? Or is it, perhaps, a sign that something fundamental has changed in the grain of human history. I believe so.

How do dictators survive? They tell lies. Muammer Gaddafi was one of the biggest liars of all time. He claimed that his people loved him. He also controlled the flow of information to his people to prevent any other narrative taking hold. Then, the mobile phone enabled people to connect. The truth spread widely to drown out all the lies that the colonel broadcast over the airwaves. Similarly in Egypt and Tunisia, the regimes lost control of the narrative. In short, technology has undermined dictators’ ability to lie to their people.

So why are democracies failing at the same time? The simple answer: democracies have also been telling lies. Now we know, for example, that the eurozone project was created on a big lie. European politicians assured their publics that the contradiction between monetary union and fiscal independence would be resolved by insisting on fiscal discipline. Any eurozone member that violated the 3 per cent budget deficit rule would be punished.