In conjunction with the most controversial American elections in the current era, the shelves of American bookstores are crowded with books bearing a cautionary and even pessimistic tone that portend the decline of democracy in the West and its increasing crisis in the political systems in Europe and North America.
Among these books is the book "People versus Democracy: Why is our freedom in danger? How can it be saved?"
Of particular importance, it was written by Yasha Monk, an academic at Harvard University at the height of the era of US President Donald Trump, and the book seemed from its title as painting a dark and anxious picture of the democratic scene, focusing in particular on the phenomenon of the rise of populist movements around the world.
Although Munk considers populists to be democrats because they present what the majority of the masses demand, he presents his work “People versus democracy” as a study of the rise of populism and what the author sees as the collapse of liberal democracy, and explains his hypothesis that liberal democracy is disintegrating into two opposing camps: “illiberal democracy, that is, democracy. Without rights, and undemocratic liberalism, that is, rights without democracy.
Democracy is in crisis
Professor Monk argues that democracy is in crisis, not just because of Trump's presidency, but because of the rise of authoritarianism in Europe, where he was born and raised.
He argues that if you interview young people, you will discover that they do not take democracy for granted, that they despise it or even say that they do not think it is important.
Monk asserts that rising populism is democratic because it serves the majority, but it is illiberal because it does not protect the rights of everyone, and in this period powerful elites entrench themselves and consolidate their positions, and thus political systems transform into undemocratic formulas as the gap between the established ruling elites and the rest of the population grows, and Monk argues that this The division is not surprising although most people assume that democracy and liberalism run parallel together.
On the other hand, the author considers that “citizens have gained loyalty to their political system, because it preserved peace and inflated their money, and not because they have a deep commitment to its basic principles and values.” This fear indicates that “liberal democracy was dominant only because it achieved such good achievements, and if This is true, as the popular association with liberal democracy may be shallower and more fragile than its proponents believe, and this would go a long way toward explaining its current problems.
Although autocrats come from both sides of the political spectrum, the book mostly uses examples from the right rather than the left.
Reasons for the decline
The author argues that the past three decades in the West have been marked by the increasing role of courts, bureaucratic agencies, central banks, and supranational institutions.
At the same time, there has been a rapid growth in the influence of pressure groups and the money spent on political campaigns, and in the gap that separates political elites from the people they are supposed to represent, and these factors, when taken into account, indicate that the political system in Western countries is becoming more isolated from Popular will.
Monk examines the main reasons for the decline of liberal democracy, arguing that there are 3 "conditions" for democracy that have stabilized it in the past, but these conditions no longer exist at the present time. First: the media, as social media has weakened traditional media platforms and enabled illiberal voices that Previously, it was marginalized, as the institutional media limited the distribution of previously extremist ideas.
Second: the economy. Most people enjoyed high standards of living in the past, but many now fear that they will suffer greater difficulties in the future, as slow economic growth and growing current inequality replaces the high sustainable growth and inequalities that helped root Western democracy in The second half of the twentieth century, and draws attention to the increasing role of money in politics.
Finally: Almost all stable democracies used to be mono-ethnic states or had a dominant ethnic group, but now this dominance is being challenged in many places, as the recent wave of immigration in most major democracies has led to a "large-scale insurgency" against ethnic and cultural pluralism.
Criticisms and solutions
Although the book was criticized for focusing only on the Western world and political regimes in Europe and North America, it seemed as if the author considers the issue of the rise of populism to be primarily a Western story, or that he considers democracy and liberalism as Western principles by nature.
So why doesn't democracy have its old-fashioned allure?
One of the reasons is the absence of simple liberalism and hatred of difference, as rights become as if they belong to "real Americans" only, and there is no objection to harming others, and democracy also appears as bureaucratic and ineffective, so an undemocratic approach can have an appeal given the factors of speed and harmony, according to the author. .
Monk asserts that the three problems of democracy need to be addressed quickly in order to maintain liberal democracy, and he offers many solutions, such as defending the rights of individuals in any country, calling for keeping immigration open, with border control, and the need to create a new sense of pride that is not subject to For political employment, so that liberal democracies retain "the power to shape a future in which openness to the world does not need to be synonymous with loss of control."
Monk proposes various remedies to preserve liberal democracy, for one reason he argues that it is crucial to restore the primacy of civic education, and he quotes the advice of James Madison - the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817 - that democratic self-government requires informed and informed citizens.
The author offers solutions such as "domesticating nationalism", renewing civil awareness, and reforming economic policy to raise living standards and reduce inequality as one of the solutions to the crisis of democracy, and stresses the need to raise taxes on high-income people and companies, invest more in infrastructure, distribute benefits and support forms of justice. Economic.
And while the author's solutions seem superficial - according to the book's criticisms and reviews, especially with regard to economics - his diagnosis of the contemporary democracy crisis in the Western world seems remarkable at the present time.