Massive demonstrations in many countries around the world, while often triggered by issues such as small changes in fuel costs or the arrest of an opposition leader or wage stagnation, are mostly about larger issues. Many local as well as more widespread causes stand behind such conflicts, but a short list of critical components would include digitization, demographic distortions, the post-growth economy and political and commercial openness (or the lack thereof). Capabilities and problems expressed through these causes have given rise to a new focus on fairness, which is causing confrontations with leaders, both political and commercial. Autocrats and the wealthy dig in to hold on to what they have, while protesters proclaim a need for structural change. To protesters and the many more sympathizers, the system has failed, and that failure has led to questions that all those pouring into the streets of the world’s cities are answering: Who has power, and what have they been doing with it? The answers to those questions suggest that leadership has failed; autocratic methods are seemingly failing, as are those of democracy, and as a result, we are in the midst of political instability, even as the world’s economies fail to deliver sufficient growth to address the needs of many demographic distortions. A rethinking of autocracy, democracy, communism and capitalism is under way, and new answers to the critical questions about power and its exercise will, in the near term, further society’s volatility, uncertainty and anxiety.