> Democracies, it turns out, are more stable in part because they have peaceful transitions of power. That remains to be seen. The longest lived democracy, if

> Democracies, it turns out, are more stable in part because they have peaceful transitions of power. That remains to be seen. The longest lived democracy, if you want to define the term generously enough, might be the UK, which has been roughly the same style of constitutional monarchy since 1688. That’s a little under 350 years. Almost as long lived as the Western Roman Empire. The French monarchy survived for about twice as long. The oligarchic Venetian republic lasted over a millennium, as did the Eastern Roman Empire.