The age of the DINOsaurs

The general election in Georgia on Saturday returned the Georgian Dream (GD) party to power for its fourth successive term.

A tad suspicious maybe? Well, Georgia’s pro-EU president, Salome Zourabichvili, certainly smelled a rat, declaring that she did not recognise the results, asserting that the country had fallen victim to a “Russian special operation”. She went further, calling on Georgians to protest against the results this evening. “This was a total rigging, a total robbery of your votes” she added, for the removal of any doubt as to her true feelings on the subject.

Since gaining its independence from Russia in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Georgia has never managed to fully break free of the Russian sphere of influence, especially under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. Despite recent attempts to persuade Georgians to opt for joining the EU, including massive protests against GD's Russophile stance, the election appears to have vindicated GD. But, as we know, appearances can be deceptive. Despite claiming to have received 54% of the popular vote there have been widespread accusations of electoral malpractice, vote rigging and intimidation.

I mention this now as we are about to witness a critical election in the world's oldest democracy, the United States. Once a beacon of free and fair elections and the orderly transfer of power, the reality since Donald Trump's defeat in 2020 has been one of chaos and division, bordering on civil unrest. Trump has signalled his intention of making next week's presidential contest the last, apparently semaphoring his intention to rule as an autocrat if elected, and fight the system if not. How much of this is bombast and hyperbole is impossible to know but the fact that he has dared to voice it publicly is frightening enough as, win or lose, it seems to promise violent conflict ahead.

All of which, of course, will be music to the ears of dictators around the world and in particular, Vladimir Putin, who despises democracy and has done everything possible to undermine it. At the same time, he probably fears Trump for his unpredictability whilst relishing the prospect of a Trump win delivering him victory in Ukraine with the retention of all his illegally acquired territories in Crimea and the Donbas region. He will also be looking forward to Trump's weakening of the NATO alliance putting severe financial pressure on his other bête noir, the European Union (EU).

Western democracy is clearly under threat from all sides but those of us who value it, whilst acknowledging its many deficiencies, really need to take a long hard look at our political systems and critically assess how far they have become democracy in name only (DINO). It is ncreasingly apparent that most so-called democracies value the democratic process only so far as it delivers power for a four- or five-year term in office, at which point the victors can pretty much ignore the electorate and do as they please, providing they have a sufficient parliamentary majority. And the electorate are, by and large, content with the status quo, or too apathetic to demand meaningful change.

One of the oft-heard criticisms of politicians during the recent General Election in the United Kingdom was "they're all the same", implying that those who could be bothered to vote in the first place did so only to kick out the discredited ruling party after fourteen years in government rather than with any expectation of meaningful change. But if politicians really are all the same, whose fault is that? Surely it is incumbent on the electorate to demand a better alternative? 

And there's the rub; truly participative democracy demands a lot of input from the people (demos), at every level. The principle of Citizens' Assemblies is a laudable one but requires a groundswell of support which, sadly, is not in the self-interest of party politicians to encourage or enable. From their perspective, doing so would be tantamount to turkeys voting for Christmas. In the context of Westminster politics - still, despite partial devolution, one of the world's most centralised democracies - politicians are highly unlikely to surrender their entrenched power and privilege without a struggle. 

They are not about to burst the 'Westminster bubble' anytime soon.




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