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WEATERN DEMOCRACIES IN TROUBLE Umair Haque: How Much Trouble Are Our Democracies In? ... Democracy’s Foundations Are Crumbling — And Now its Roof Is Caving in, Too 
Image Credit: Jonathan Ernst Original article: https://eand.co/how-much-trouble-are-our-democracies-in-3c7c574c4187 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I picked up on this phrase in Umari Haque's post: ... the pinnacle of democracy — mature social democracies, largely concentrated in Western Europe. These are the most sophisticated societies in human history — designed with generous social contracts, which guarantee basics, at a level unprecedented in the brutal history of feudalism and hyper capitalism and so forth, ...I have lived a long life, but have not paid that much attention to 'politics' although I have been engaged with governance and managing in both the corporate environment and at the level of national government. The problem of corruption has been on my radar during my active working career, and I have been outspoken about the sloppy way in which a lot of big institutions tolerate weak accounting and accountability. This includes most of the government entities in the United States at the Federal level, and the State and Local level. In contrast, some of the small countries around the world have really quite solid government accounting systems and accountability. Not all, of course, and some countries have a high level corruption that is ubiquitous but broadly speaking ignored by the international community. MORE TO COME Peter Burgess | ||
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How Much Trouble Are Our Democracies In?
Democracy’s Foundations Are Crumbling — And Now its Roof Is Caving in, Too Written by Umair Haque Oct 3rd. 2022 By now, everyone should be — probably is — aware of the fact that democracy’s in deep trouble around the globe. When I say deep, I mean deep. How bad is it? I want to spend a few minutes discussing it, and give you a way to think clearly about what political scientists have called an age of “democratic backsliding” or “democratic decline” — but which you and I might simply say more plainly is looking ominously like an age of fascism resurgent. The first wave of democratic implosions hit relatively undeveloped democracies. That means poor countries, like India, or poor-to-middle income countries, like the Philippines and Brazil. And it also means the least developed democracies among rich countries — like America and Britain. This much was predictable, at least in the sense that the least developed democracies are likely to be, also, the most vulnerable to collapse. So a kind of tsunami of anti-democratic rage swept around the globe. In America, of course, Trumpism was allowed to metastasize, an inept and complicit intellectual and pundit class busily asking the rhetorical question “but is this fascism?” while kids were being taken from their parents, and put in concentration camps. This sort of self-serving inattention of course paved the way for what was clearly to come: the series of coup attempts that led up to Jan 6th. Because America’s power centers were busy downplaying how serious a threat Trumpism really was to democracy, Trumpism was allowed to plan, plot, and then carry out a series of coup attempts — from soft attempts to produce fake slates of electors, to the bloody violence at the Capitol. Trumpism became a model and beacon for anti-democratic movements around the globe — even many of which preceded it. In India, Modi-ism had existed before Trumpism — a kind of hyper-religious fanatical nationalism — and yet movements such as that looked at Trumpism, and smiled: “if they can do it, why can’t we do even more?” The same was true of anti-democratic movements in Eastern Europe, which both took cues from Trumpism, and inspired back in turn. Yet the point in this category of democratic decline is that was bottom-up. Let me clarify what I mean by that. I don’t mean it just in the sense of “within societies” — ie, a grass roots movement. We’ll come back to that point. Rather, I mean it the sense that if we looked at league tables of nations, it was usually the nations faring worst among their peers that democracy began to decline in. For example, America had long been the worst performer amongst rich countries, on nearly every social indicator imaginable — from maternal mortality to happiness to trust to indebtedness. America was, as people openly remark now, barely a developed country at all. And in that sense, democracy began to erode and collapse from the bottom up. And for a time, many thought that was where things would stop. More developed nations were surely immune to democratic decline — like, for example, Europe’s social democracies. The idea was that such nations would be largely immune to democratic decline, having built robust social contracts, which could withstand the populist pressures that had afflicted nations like America — lesser nations, in a way, less protected in every way from the ills of rage, despair, and discontent, with fewer guarantees, protections, less empathic norms, fewer safeguards against democracy imploding, both institutionally and procedurally. After all, many of Europe’s post-war constitutions had been rewritten explicitly with the idea of ever preventing fascism from recurring. Alas, this optimistic view of history is turning out not to be the case. Take a hard look at what’s happening now — in what we might call the Third Wave of Democratic Decline. The first wave was the birth of populist movements like Trumpism and Brexit, and the second was their ascendance to power, through complicity and appeasement and “it can’t happen here”-ism. And, like I said, the idea was that that was where democratic decline would largely stop — in places already troubled, like America and Britain, or India and Brazil. But now? The situation’s very different. Nations like Italy and Sweden, too, are going full-blown fascist. Italy’s new leadership and Sweden’s second biggest party now have explicit fascist “roots.” And if you think you can reform a fascist organization, my friend, have I got news for you, beginning with the Nazis. That’s a joke, but not really one at all. What does it mean when nations like Italy and Sweden, too, experience democratic implosions? After all, these are mature social democracies. Think of democracy as a spectrum. At the bottom are countries like India and Brazil, and a small ways up, ones like America. Places where democracy has never really matured in the strict terms of genuine equality, justice, freedom, and so forth. As a simple example, in America, women have never had equal rights formally, and basics like healthcare and income are still a struggle for nearly everyone. Democracy, perhaps — but not in the modern, mature sense. At the other end of the spectrum lies the pinnacle of democracy — mature social democracies, largely concentrated in Western Europe. These are the most sophisticated societies in human history — designed with generous social contracts, which guarantee basics, at a level unprecedented in the brutal history of feudalism and hyper capitalism and so forth, to all. It’s one thing when democracy begins to implode at the lower, less developed level — where nations like America find themselves. It’s quite another when democracy begins to implode from the pinnacle itself. And that is what nations like Sweden and Italy experiencing profound, catastrophic levels of democratic collapse tell us — that democracy isn’t just imploding from the weak foundations anymore, but also now from the capstones. In other words, in this Third Wave of Democratic Decline, democracy’s buckling from the top down, not just the bottom up. From the very heights of what democracy is and is capable of — at the level of mature social democracies. Let me put that a little bit more formally now. In the First and Second Waves of Democratic Decline, it was liberal democracies — or aspiring liberal democracies, even — which found themselves under threat from populist movements, that quickly became neo-fascist and authoritarian movements. Think of America again: it never came close to becoming a social democracy, guaranteeing much of anything, from healthcare to housing to income, for all. It remained, steadfastly, a liberal democracy — a neoliberal one, to be precise. In this context, a “liberal democracy” means one that prioritizes the old idea of freedom — freedom from any kind of government interference — over the newer one, which is freedom through collective action and shared investment, like freedom to get educated, to have healthcare, and so forth. America’s idea of freedom was individualistic and economistic and consumerist: I get mine, you do yours, and your life is your problem, and every interaction between us is mediated by markets, not communities. That’s liberal democracy in a nutshell. Social democracy is at an entirely different level of sophistication. It does guarantee basics for all — often generous and cutting edge ones. It does prioritize values like dignity and equality over the naive version of liberal democracy’s individualistic, thin freedom. And to do all that, social democracies usually have more modern political systems, too, whether through proportional representation or ranked choice voting and other modern innovations. So to see democracy now collapsing from the top down, not just the bottom up, is a very grim development. We’re now seeing several forms of democratic collapse at work in the world, not just one. Liberal democracies like America and Britain continue their plummet into dysfunction and chaos — even if Dark Brandon in America is doing a good job of righting the ship, the Trumpists are still right there, openly threatening violence and cheering on the next coup, while Britain’s become a worldwide laughingstock compared to Argentina or Venezuela. That’s form one. But there’s another kind, which is different — nations like Sweden and Italy, mature social democracies, buckling and breaking, too. Think of a house. It’s one thing when the foundations begin to weaken. It’s another when the roofs falls in. Two distinct forms of collapse — each, perhaps, making the other worse. And that is what’s happening to our house of democracy. The foundation’s crumbling — but the roof’s also beginning to crumple. That’s not a good place for a civilization to be. Where do we go from here? The world’s bright spot in these depths of democratic decline is, ironically enough, America — it’s Big Bang in the first place. Under Joe Biden, serious efforts are being made to stem the tide. They range from punishing the offenders — see how the pressure’s intensifying on Trump himself — to undoing the root causes of democracy’s woes, underinvestment, inequality, and the ensuing despair, which causes a widespread loss of faith institutions, and trust between social groups, paving the way for scapegoating and demagoguery. It was America which set the trend for democratic decline — and Biden’s America may be showing the world how to undo it, too. Time will tell. The initial signs are positive. Democracy is collapsing globally now, from the bottom up and the top down, both — from the foundation and the capstone. The question before us now is: can democracy be rebuilt? Or was it just to be a passing, fleeting phase in history — as humanity lurches from empire and war to extinction? Umair October 2022
| The text being discussed is available at | https://eand.co/how-much-trouble-are-our-democracies-in-3c7c574c4187 and |