In Argentina, which since December 2001 has had a severe economic crisis and an inspired rise of neighborhood and community groups to replace failed institutions, it’s called horizontalidad, or horizontality. Perhaps it’s all just democracy at its most potent.

When this sorry scene, too rowdy for democracy, is viewed in comparison with the last decade’s rapid economic growth in emerging economies, often with very different cultures of decision-making, the sense of despair is somehow sharper.