The world is watching in baffled astonishment as the 2016 United States presidential election campaign, one of the most divisive in American history, draws to its conclusion. Not only has it brought to the surface deep fissures in American society, it has opened them wider. The United States constitution, a masterpiece of political ingenuity that has held conflicting forces in balance for more than two centuries, is undergoing one of its severest trials. The principle of the “separation of powers” at its heart, which sets up mutual checks on power between executive, legislature and judiciary, will have to be robust enough to withstand an unprecedented threat to democracy and the rule of law. Its greatest challenge yet may be to tame President Donald Trump in the White House. At which it may fail.

Neither of the possible outcomes will let America off the rack. A victory for Donald Trump would herald an era of populist demagoguery that could run out of control with incalculable consequences. His defeat by Hillary Clinton could unleash even darker forces in opposition to her. The campaign could almost have been designed to disprove Winston Churchill’s famous dictum, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.” What he did not allow for is an attempt to undermine democracy by using the tools of democracy itself.