It will have guests from around 110 countries

Fears that the upcoming "Biden Democracy Summit" will turn into mere gossip

  • The criteria adopted by Biden to hold the expected summit sparked widespread controversy.

    AFP

  • Greta Thunberg .. She criticized the climate summit in a severe way.

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The young Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, criticized the world leaders who gathered at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow recently, saying that they are only good at gossip, without actual action.

And political analyst Andreas Kloth believes, in an analysis published by Bloomberg News Agency, that if the issue of Thunberg was freedom and not the environment, it might have directed the same amount of sarcasm at the leaders who will participate, hypothetically, in the "Summit for Democracy", which US President Joe invited Biden to her contract on the ninth and tenth of next December.

The host of the summit is Biden, the supposed leader of the free world, and it will include guests from about 110 countries that the US president deems democratic, to the extent that it qualifies to participate.

Biden's criteria have sparked controversy, with China, which of course was not invited to attend, irritated by the participation of Taiwan, which is not even recognized by the United States as a state, but is at least fraught with democracy.

This criterion does not apply to other countries invited to the summit, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Pakistan.

However, over recent years, a number of participating countries, such as Brazil, India, and the Philippines, have morphed into models that symbolize the "regression" of democracy, with powerful populist leaders borrowing from authoritarians and subverting liberal norms.

There is also the host country. During the Cold War, the American superpower often had to bear accusations of hypocrisy while leading the world against the communist bloc.

But America in general was worthy of the mantle of the main "liberal democracy" on the planet.

Nevertheless, in recent years, the United States has become, at times, like a tragic television series, which the whole world watches a lot.

The analyst Kloth referred to the recent report of the International Institute for Democracy and Election Aid, based in Sweden, on the state of democracy in the world, which was characterized by extreme pessimism.

In the report, the institute expressed its concern that the United States, the “bastion of global democracy”, had itself fallen victim to authoritarian tendencies, as it had turned into a highly polarized society, in which whoever loses fair elections refuses to accept defeat, and even seeks to spread lies about “theft” " The election.

Americans used to teach other countries about such disadvantages, such as voter suppression and political violence.

Today, they are the party that has to provide explanations for what is happening in their country.

"Of course," says Kluth, "democratic decline is far from an American phenomenon. It occurs almost everywhere, a steep descent into tyranny, as in Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Belarus, or a gradual slide, as in Hungary." and Turkey.”

Biden has not invited either Turkey or Hungary to the top of democracy.

According to political analyst Kluth, about two-thirds of the world lives under authoritarian regimes, or crumbling democracies.

In some cases, it is related to the pervasiveness of corruption, and the associated distrust and indifference among the population.

At other times, the problem is related to the gradual disintegration of checks and balances, such as the independence of the judiciary, as is the case in Poland, which is nonetheless called for a bite.

The coronavirus pandemic has made matters worse, providing autocrats with a great deal of justification for further arbitrary restrictions.

Almost everywhere, misinformation and conspiracy theories fuel polarization, division, and skepticism as they spread in the internet age faster than ever.

enemies of democracy

The masterminds behind these campaigns are often the well-known enemies of liberal democracy, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Cloth explained that this leads to the real purpose behind the "Biden Democracy Summit." The aim of the summit is to provide a great opportunity for the passionate talk of the rest of the democrats in the world, from activists, civic leaders, and politicians of good will.

But more than that, the summit is intended to send a massive invitation to liberal countries, in one way or another, to enter into an American-led coalition against tyrannical powers.

Biden himself described this summit as a "global struggle between democracy and tyranny."

Kloth pointed out the danger that the summit could turn into what prompted the Swedish girl Thunberg to taunt world leaders at the climate summit. By hypocrisy, about insignificant matters, and for taking pictures, so that no human being in any part of the earth will become freer, and pessimism will spread more widely.

In the best case, the democracies that gather at the top, including America, the host country, will realize that they all face two types of enemies, the first is clear, and it is an external enemy, represented in authoritarian regimes, such as Russia and China, and the second is more cunning or treacherous, and is represented by the traitors of freedom. and local defeatists.

In 1987, when democracy was progressing and not regressing, the late US President, Ronald Reagan, said clearly: “Freedom is never more than that between us and extinction is a generation.

Every generation must fight for and defend freedom.”

At the conclusion of his analysis, Kluth believes that Biden should renew this sermon in front of his guests at the summit of democracy, and in front of all Americans.

• America, the bastion of democracy, has fallen victim to authoritarian tendencies and has become a highly polarized society, in which whoever loses fair elections refuses to accept defeat.


• In recent years, a number of countries participating in the summit of democracy, such as Brazil, India and the Philippines, have turned into models that symbolize the “regression” of democracy, as the powerful populist leaders of these countries borrow methods from the authoritarian approach and subvert liberal norms.

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