In the wake of the financial crisis observers worried that European democracies were coming under threat from populist parties and right-wing movements. Others hold that populist parties merely close a representation gap, thereby contributing to the overall health of democratic polities in Europe. However, CUNY Graduate Center scholar Till Weber and colleague Fernando Casal Bértoa argue that populist parties may be contributing to the overall health of democratic polities, and that, in fact, the democratic backlashes in the wake of the Great Recession in 2008 were actually moderate in the larger picture: “Many countries have seen electoral backlash against governing parties, but few have had their parliaments hamstrung, anti-system forces reach critical size, or executive power slip from the hands of the establishment.” (Bértoa/Weber 2019: 233). Bértoa and Weber’s findings are important because they add to our understanding of the adaptability of democratic political systems.