Something Thoughtful

 Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.

                                           UNPOPULAR DEMOCRACY

 

 

 

Here’s a little bit of cogitation for you.

What proportion of countries on Earth have functioning and genuinely democratic forms of government? By “genuinely democratic” I mean systems that accept the rule of law, are not one-party states, have regular elections which are not corrupt or rigged, have regular debates in their parliament or assembly between government parties and opposition parties, allow peaceful dissent, have a free press and open public media, allow freedom of assembly, of worship, of speech and the other liberal freedoms.

What proportion of sovereign states meet all these criteria?

Answer – very few.

I know that solidly democratic states have their flaws, can have elements of corruption and are not beyond reproach. Even so, one could say that only a small proportion of sovereign states are genuinely democratic. 

Of course we can draw up a list of apparently democratic countries, but we quickly discover that their democracy is either a sham or now under severe stress.  India has frequently been referred to as “the world’s largest democracy”, but its current leader and ruling party are intent on building a Hindu-supremacist state barring other groups from power – in effect, disenfranchising huge parts of the population. After 70 years of the tyrannical and unworkable system of communism, Russia seemed ready for democracy. For a very short time democracy flourished there. But first oligarchs, then a “postmodern dictator” took over. So-called opposition parties in the Duma are paid-off puppets to the new autocrat Vladimir Putin who had rigged the system so that he can be president for life; and of course information media are strictly controlled and censored. Dissidents are discreetly killed or exiled. Regrettably Belarus and the Ukraine are heading in the same direction. Africa, South America and the Middle East have some genuine democracies, but many are authoritarian and merely go through the formal motions of democracy. Authoritarianism comes on the Left (Chavez’s then Maduro’s Venezuela); and on the Right (Bolsonaro’s Brazil).

And, quite apart from my concerns about a lack of democracy, here comes my problem.

Authoritarianism is currently on the rise.

Obviously it has always existed in the few remaining communist states – North Korea (completely totalitarian), Cuba  (half-arsed totalitarian) and the so-called “Peoples’ ” Republic of China, which has long since abandoned destructive Maoist economics and allows a limited form of private enterprise, but is still run by a tiny, unrepresentative clique. North Korea is a hell hole. Cuba has recently shown rumbles of dissent. But to many people, China seems to be thriving, at least for its Han Chinese subjects (but not Tibetan, Uyghur or other minorities). So there is some admiration for a hyper-controlled, undemocratic state.

And here comes my second and more profound problem.

Could it be that many people, particularly if they seem to be materially well off, don’t mind not living in a democracy? After all, by their very nature, democracies are argumentative and fractious, with a free press constantly telling people what is wrong with the state or what scandal is currently playing out. If you live in a controlled society, the government is always right, the media tell you only what is positive about your country, there are no troublesome noises of dissent and as a bonus you can see selected clips of riots, protests, trials for corruption etc. going in those inferior democratic states. This is very comforting – indeed it is a retrogression to a world in which the squire or landlord or lord of the manor wields power and we peasants simply go about our business, certain that ours is a stable society possessing the only right scale of values.

The assumption that everyone desires democracy is in fact a delusion. Crass attempts (especially by the United States) to impose democracy by force have always ended in disaster. In very many countries, a small educated elite may wish for a democratic system, but they will always be overborns by masses who have only ever known traditional, non-democratic systems and would rather follow their chief or mullah than a distant, non-representative urban intellectual.

We live in this world, where real democracy is rare and possibly in decline. I have no panacea for this problem. I simply state it and hope more people are aware of the fact.