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.
IS DEMOCRACY ON THE BLINK?
Here I go once again pompously being the Jeremiah calling out what’s wrong with the world. And a lot is wrong. In the United States at time of writing this, a semi-senile old hack and a potential demagogue are vying for the presidency. Democrats and Republicans equally throw dirt at each other. Democrats and Republicans are equally corrupt. Scandals can easily be dug up from either side, and very partisan media shriek at each other. Neither candidate will heal whatever irks the mass of Americans. Whoever wins will be loathed by at least half the electorate. And there is one major flaw in American democracy which is rarely scrutinised, to wit, the comparatively low turnout on polling day. In recent years, as low as 45% of those who can vote do bother to vote in the U.S.A. … not to mention the problem of who has the right to vote in the first place. Illegal immigrants? Prisoners? I stand back, severely worried by the rot that is eating away at American democracy. Like or loathe the U.S.A., it remains the major defence of Western democracy and America’s internal squabbling can only weaken that defence.
Meanwhile, the U.K. is also heading for major distress. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has just won a landslide victory at the polls, fuelled by disgust at the recent years of Tory incompetence, scandals and a series of short-term prime-ministers. The Labour Party now dominates the House of Commons, not needing allies from any other smaller party. Starmer’s victory was perfectly legitimate according to the British rules. But here’s the rub. Britain still uses the antiquated first-past-the-post system of determining how the electorate will be formed. It means that a minority of voters can win an election. This is what has just happened in Britain. Approximately only one third of the electorate voted for the Labour Party, but the Labour Party now commands well over half of parliament. The Tories took a well-earned drubbing, and gained far fewer votes than the Labour Party did. But notice this anomaly. Over sixty seats went to the Lib-Dems (Liberal-Democrats) while Nigel Farage’s “Reform” party gained only four seats. Yet far more voters voted for “Reform” than voted for the Lib-Dems. How could this be? Because first-past-the-post meant that nearly all those who voted for “Reform” could be ignored as they voted in electorates where their party came second. I’m no advocate for Farage’s party, but it does mean that, under Labour rule, most of the electorate will be seething, aware that the ruling party represents only a minority of voters. That is what I mean by distress. And here is another axiom in politics – the larger the political party, the more likely it is to be troubled by factions. Not too long ago, the radical-left of the British Labour Party were cursing Keir Starmer for offering more moderate ideas and therefore undermining Jeremy Corbyn. How long will it be before the Labour government once again quarrels with itself?
And then, God help us, there is France. President Emmanuel Macron foolishly called a snap-election, hoping to bring more into his Centrist Party and also perhaps hoping that he would be seen as a great leader when the forthcoming Olympic Games arrive in France. It backfired. Not only did Macron’s party get far fewer votes than before, but Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won enough votes to be the largest party in the National Assembly (the French parliament), now taking a third of the seats in the Assembly. This meant that, by custom, the next prime-minister would be Le Pen’s right-hand man. Panic from the Centrists and the Left. France has its two-tier system of voting, so after Le Pen’s triumph, all other parties gathered together to block Le Pen in the second round. This meant that coalitions were hastily hammered together. The Assembly now has two “blocs” – two groups – each a little larger than Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), so the RN will not be a part of the government. But there is a big problem here. The groups that make up the two “blocs” are not really compatible – they range from small parties to Centrists to moderate Socialists to the extreme [far] Left. They might hold off Le Pen for a while, but they are capable of tearing one-another apart. At best, this is a very unstable form of democracy. One pundit has said it will be like France’s 4th Republic, which lasted from 1947 to 1959 and which was pulled apart by its many incompatible factions. A whole new constitution had to be written (partly by De Gaulle), creating the 5th Republic in 1959. Now there is the possibility that the 5th Republic will have to be revised into another constitution… at least that is what one pundit said. One little footnote here: Le Pen’s party is often characterised in the press as “populist” or “the far Right” or even “the extreme Right”. Maybe it is. But I would balance it by saying that, apart from “populist”, the same terms could be applied to the determined Left.
So where does my Jeremiad go after noting the political flaws of America, Britain and France? Simply this – these three countries have for a long time been the models and beacons of democracy, despite all their faults [and crimes]. But their present political states tarnish them, and makes many in other countries begin thinking that democracy is all too messy to be bothered with. Roll in the demagogues who turn into dictators. Last year I wrote a piece on this blog called TheAttraction of Tyranny . You will from it see what messy democracy often leads to.
FOOTNOTE: This woeful acount might be only provisional - at least if Biden's party might just decide to accept another official candidate.
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