Democracy in Crisis
It’s conventional wisdom that democracies are in crisis and that they must do better if they are to avoid backsliding or be overtaken by authoritarian and illiberal alternatives. This is seen as a response to an array of external challenges such as the 2009 global economic crisis, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, climate change disasters, military conflicts and the spread of disinformation and great power politics. It’s also argued that internal threats such as eroding trust in institutions, growing inequalities, political polarization and lack of opportunity for the excluded are making people more willing to embrace antidemocratic solutions.
But a close look at the data shows that these crises are more complex than commonly assumed. The interactions among them are varied and nuanced, and the impacts on democracy are often more positive than negative. For example, community-level climate mobilisation and a post-pandemic thickening of civic infrastructure have both boosted democratic potential.
In contrast, some established democracies have taken a page from the authoritarian playbook in an attempt to salvage support, imposing restrictions on elections, civil liberties and governance oversight. As a result, the global decline in democracy has become a race to the bottom. This new perspective offers a more holistic view of the challenges facing democracy, and a way to understand them as an embedded strand within the much broader capitalist crisis that is shaping our times. The implications are profound for the future of democracy and call for reworked conceptual accounts of democratization and autocratization.
About the Author
