In 1947, former British prime minister Winston Churchill famously observed that: “Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
This aphorism has been
repeated countless times since, especially by those
advocating the increased adoption of the Western
democratic model of electoral politics around the
globe.
However, over 10 years ago, The Economist, a highly influential British weekly that strongly supports global, Western democratic promotion, began asking: What’s Gone Wrong With Democracy? It has continued to pose this same question in different, concerned ways ever since, lately arguing that “anti-politics is eating the West”.
Elsewhere, recent commentary on democracy in the United States has been particularly negative, highlighting, for example: “democracy in crisis” (Freedom House), “democratic erosion” (Brookings Institution), and America’s “flawed democracy” (The Economist again).
What, then, has happened to make the case for Western democracy look measurably more precarious today — according to those most convinced of its universal benefits — compared to when Churchill made his fundamental claim almost 80 years ago?
The reasons for this shift are complex, but three significant interacting factors are clear: new political influences, major geopolitical change, and altered political behavior patterns.
The explosive growth in the operation of social media over the last two decades has had a profound effect globally but, arguably, most of all within Western electoral democracies. Positive communication has been made far more efficient at a fraction of the previous cost. But so has negative communication. Social media has energized old and new forms of corrosive political tribalism and it has amplified stark, mass-market hostilities, as never before.
Moreover, in Western democracies, the conventional means of regulating and controlling the public discourse space are now weaker than before. Thus, in the US, extreme, free-speech fundamentalism has been repeatedly green-lighted by the US Supreme Court over the last 50 years, typically enhancing money-making opportunities for expensively advised, commercial litigants and expanding opportunities to shape political outcomes via massive partisan spending.
Next, an immense geopolitical change was triggered over 40 years ago as China started on its extraordinary rise. China, unlike all of the Group of Seven countries, including Japan and Germany, stood independently outside of the US-led “full-spectrum” ordering of global affairs, even after the “end of history” was declared in the US following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. At first, while American business prospered as China rose, this was tolerated. But over a decade ago, the US-led West grew increasingly alarmed.
Western disorientation deepened as China’s remarkable Belt and Road Initiative gained traction. The BRI is, on balance, fostering extraordinary, trillion-dollar constructive work across the Global South, and also in the heart of Europe. Western attempts to replicate the BRI have so far been “all hat, no cattle”. And then there is the BRICS project, now stronger than ever in many respects. Western denigration and ridicule are beginning to look rather desperate.
Finally, when we consider internal political behavior within Western democracies, adverse changes are evident. Tribalized divisions, intensified by social media, have elevated the use — and success — of populism and demagoguery in political argument. This is especially clear in the US, which is, more than ever, a bitterly divided electoral plutocracy, where the power of money in shaping political outcomes is simply colossal. In Europe, centrist parties have compromised themselves so much (often acting in accord with American bidding) that politics have become more extreme and splintered, significantly undermining European Union cohesion.
A growing number of Western political leaders display startling levels of shabby opportunism while seeking new ways to convince or dupe electorates. Others rate obedience to manipulative external influencers as a primary virtue. Armchair warlords are also developing greater, malign influence within these warped political systems. Western leaders who combine a robust political backbone with a forceful, independent understanding of the public interest have become a vanishing species.
Consider, for example, how Western democracies have regularly dealt ineffectually, at the outset, with natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or, more recently, the terrible flooding in Spain, compared to typically rapid and effective disaster responsiveness in far less wealthy China.
This brings to mind certain comments by the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns. He recently told NBC News, with trademark American hubris and partiality, that the US will judge China “on its actions, not just its words”. In fact, this is a conclusive, universal measure of political performance — not one that just applies to China. Burns has, thus, provided a succinct explanation of why, within the US-led “free world”, there is much anxious discussion today about the cheerless state of Western democracy. In essence, the extended catalogue of second-rate, often abusive behavior and actions explained above now speaks louder than the continuous, wordy marketing of the universal benefits of Western democracy.
And then there is Gaza and the Middle East.
The distinguished former American diplomat Chas Freeman recently argued that: “The hateful things Israel is doing have made it the most hated society on the planet. Netanyahu is seen as the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler, and Israel is a pariah everywhere outside the West.”
Massively armed Israel has become a vengeful, predatory, land-gobbling, loathsome state. The US is grotesquely complicit in Israeli genocide and other war crimes and most of its long-term allies have uncritically clung to this unpardonable US perspective. Terrible global damage has consequently been visited on the Western democracy “brand”.
Western democracy has displayed remarkable resilience and the power of self-renewal over many decades. Today, however, its claim to offer universalist solutions is gravely compromised. First, US-led, long term, globally ruinous actions and growing Western governance dysfunctionality now acutely overshadow all those continuous affirming words. Next, how can Western democracy ever hope to renew itself radically and constructively, much of the world wonders, when led by America, with its alarmingly intensified addiction to warfare-solutions?
Meanwhile, among those “other forms” of government disparaged by Churchill almost 80 years ago, China, to take one example, would surely be more than pleased to be measured by any fair-minded application of Burns’ “actions speak louder than words” comparative test.
The author is an adjunct professor in the law faculty of Hong Kong University.