Mick Hartley

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The decline of democracy

Further thoughts on the end of the liberal international order, from Brian Klaas in the Guardian:

Every year for the past decade, democracy has declined around the world. At the same time authoritarian rule is on the march. In all regions of the world democratic reformers are losing a global battle against savvy despots and counterfeit democrats – the wolves in sheep’s clothing who pretend to be “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, but are really none of the above. We might have already surpassed “peak democracy”, the high-water mark of political freedom around the world.

Donald Trump’s rise to the White House will now accelerate the decline of democracy, perhaps irreversibly. While his election is correctly seen as a unique threat to American democracy, the much more lasting victims of America’s vote will be those fighting around the world for a meaningful voice in their politics – from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Belarus, from Uzbekistan to Thailand. With Trump in the Oval Office, ordinary citizens living under despotism will find their already weak voices muted, their plight ignored…

For democracy to spread, leaders and their citizens must believe it is worth adopting. At the end of the cold war, there was a surging belief that we were approaching “the end of history”, a moment when all countries would gravitate toward liberal democratic rule. Today that idea seems almost laughable. As a result of that lost faith in democracy as a concept, authoritarian regimes are now hiding behind the broken shards of western democracy as a pretext to justify their iron-fisted rule….

Worse, though, the west’s already checkered support for democracy is now likely to be replaced by a drastically pared-down diplomatic approach. Trump sees diplomacy as an economic deal; winners are those with trade surpluses, and losers are those with deficits. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of foreign policy, a misunderstanding that sees a long-term commitment to promoting democracy as a mere waste of money. As western funds to support democracy begin to decline, the rug will be pulled out from underneath those brave pro-democracy reformers who are counting on us in the dark authoritarian realms of the world.

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2 responses to “The decline of democracy”

  1. Bob-B Avatar
    Bob-B

    This seems a bit too negative. No doubt many of us were too optimistic after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but we shouldn’t be too pessimistic now. Despots and counterfeit democrats are clearly doing quite well at the moment, but they have their problems. Klaas comments that: ‘As a result of that lost faith in democracy as a concept, authoritarian regimes are now hiding behind the broken shards of western democracy as a pretext to justify their iron-fisted rule.’ If democracy didn’t have its attractions, there wouldn’t be so many counterfeit democrats, and the authoritarian regimes wouldn’t need to be quite so iron-fisted. Thousands are dead in Syria because democracy looked attractive to people five years ago, and probably it still does. After all Iraq with its flawed democracy is clearly a better place than Syria with its vicious dictatorship. In Russia opposition politicians have been jailed, driven into exile or murdered because democracy and the possibility of a change of government is attractive to people. The Russian experience also suggests that counterfeit democracy is not a recipe for economic success. This is surely part of the reason why Putin is doing what he is in Ukraine and Syria. Foreign wars are a good way to distract attention from economic hardship at home. Recent years have not been good for democracy but it’s a bit too soon to talk about an irreversible decline of democracy.

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  2. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    Well, let’s hope you’re right.

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