A farago

The success of the right in the recent European elections suggests a weariness with liberal democracy, but what's the alternative?

Not a very palatable one, I suggest, but there can be little doubt that the post-War western model of democracy is a busted flush. Small wonder, then, that illiberal democracy, or outright autocracy and demagoguery, seems to be becoming the norm worldwide. 2024 has been hailed as the year of elections. As Time puts it: "Globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries (plus the European Union) - representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world -  are meant to hold national elections, the results of which, for many, will prove consequential for years to come."

The notion of illiberal democracy, as advocated by the rightwing prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is gaining ground, but whether it can even be described as a type of democracy is open to question. It may preserve the outward trappings of democracy, for example the holding of regular elections, but these are rarely free or fair. The most egregious examples of this can be seen in Putin's Russia and Xi Jinping's China but neither Modi's India nor Erdoğan's Turkey are shining examples. Such systems might best be characterised as DINO - democracies in name only.

Arguably, democracy got off to a bad start. The much-lauded mother of western democracy, Athenian Greece, operated a very partial system, where only freeborn men had the right to vote. If you were an Athenian woman or slave, forget it! And, of course, this model, inspired by Classical Greece and Rome, continued to be the norm in Europe (and European cultures such as the USA) until well into the 20th century. In fact in the UK property qualifications barred most men from voting until the 1918 Representation of the People Act granted the right to all men over the age of twenty-one. Universal female suffrage on the same basis was only achieved in the UK in 1928.

Populism is on the rise everywhere and DINO seems set to become the global norm. Nor are we immune from its baleful influence in the UK. Figures such as Boris Johnson and, worse, Nigel Farage, are a sorry indictment of our form of democracy in that it enables their rise. While, in Johnson's case at least, it also occasioned his downfall, and may yet Farage's, the warning from (recent) history is that democratic systems can easily be usurped by those who would promptly dismantle them once democratically elected. It is a sad paradox of democracy that it contains within it the seeds of its own destruction; it can be terminated democratically.

Under the liberal democratic system, those who fall may rise again. (To employ a Latin phrase Johnson would doubtless enjoy, delapsus resurgam, when I fall I shall rise.) In the US system Donald Trump may yet be elected while in a prison cell - although he could probably grant himself a Presidential pardon if he were. Democracy is an imperfect system that can all too easily be subverted by malign actors. Writers of constitutions can only aim to prevent threats they can envisage - and the Founding Fathers could hardly have foreseen a loose cannon like Donald Trump running for President.

The concept of benevolent dictatorship might be thought to offer an alternative to the vagaries of 'pure' democracy and the dangers of untrammelled autocracy. Among the names suggested in this category are Kamal Atatürk (President of Turkey 1923-38); Josip Tito (President of Yugoslavia 1953-80) and Lee Kuan Yew (Prime Minister of Singapore 1959-90). While these men undoubtedly achieved great things for their countries they were very far from being secular saints. Their successes were achieved by rigid social control and a lack of accountabilty to independent institutions such as freely-elected parliaments, an impartial judiciary or a free press and media.

Let's face it, democracy is hard work and most of us are too busy, too apathetic or too disenchanted to engage in the sort of full-on participation - citizens' assemblies, hustings, campaigning and the like - necessary to make properly accountable democracy work. Most of us are content to turn out every four-or-five years to vote and leave the rest to chance. Many can't even be bothered to do that much. 

Strangely, though, we all seem to have an opinion when it comes to the resultant state of the world. The majority, I suspect, feel powerless to change anything and mostly, of course, that's the way politicians prefer it. Heaven forfend the lumpen should get above themselves and actively engage in practical politics! Where would that end? Far better leave it to the professionals to get on with the difficult job of ruling.

Like football, politics is a game for gentlemen played by thugs.


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