the state of democracy
the state of democracy
notes between hope and despair
I wish I was bearing good news for a change but it is not my style. In 2019, as a journalism student, I was procrastinating on my master’s thesis, struggling to pinpoint the topic, the main focus, the one question to answer. My interest tentacles were dipped in too many possibilities. I settled down on the not-so-obscure Copenhagen criteria, the list of requirements any country must adhere to before joining the European Union (EU). Thus started a fascination for democracy and the craze for a deeper understanding of our system.
In 2019, fissures were already too visible. Poland and Hungary were dragging the rule of law in the mud, pulling in the rest of the Union. The far right was on the rise, spreading fear and hatred. The Brexit happened through lies and a shattered media establishment.1 The West had freshly “got ridden of ISIS”, its own Frankenstein-esque creation, the fruit of even more lies and a gruesome thirst for power and money. Trump, aided by a blind Republican party, was spitting on the democracy that got him elected and planting the seeds of authoritarianism.
None of this happened in a vacuum.
Increasingly our understanding of democracy is focused around the elections and the electoral process. Politicians slap an election and call it a day, democracy sorted. Some people don’t even bother with it, or rather they lose faith. Elections don’t work, it’s always the same people, I don’t care about politics, I don’t read the news, it does not matter to me, etc etc. making absenteeism and white ballots the first party. Others claim they want to try something new, namely fascism or a modern twisted version of an old idea.2 Two different situations, sending the same message: something is broken. Outside of electoral periods, democracy holds little meaning.
Democracy stands on four pillars: judicial, executive, legislature and the media, each independent and holding the others accountable. Disrupting one pillar threatens the whole system, and this is what we are observing in many a country. However, I would argue that the most efficient way to subvert democracy and overthrow the system is much more insidious as it passes incognito, almost unnoticeable: defunding culture. Forget wannabe authoritarians, their attacks on the rule of law, corruption and the professionalisation of politics. Disinformation may be the greatest threat to our democracies. The destruction of democracy starts before that, it starts with the decline of culture.
Attacks on culture don’t appear as a threat for most, who even goes to museums anyway? But Arts are a window into other worlds, into realities that differ from ours while highlighting the universalities of our emotions. Culture broadens horizons, it creates empathy for the other and makes us think deeper. Once culture is delegitimated, books become an easier target and knowledge erodes, slowly, until it becomes the main threat to our system. Without a deep understanding of the world and its systems, without an open mind to the unknown and the stranger, without a capacity to analyse complex ideas, we become easily manipulated.
The far-right has taken control of the political and media agenda. Themes discussed revolve around what they want: immigration, traditional values of “our Christian society”, the so-called threat to our security. Themes tainted with racism, sexism, ableism,… posing the other as an enemy of democracy, an enemy of society as we know it. And the classical right parties fall into the trap by normalising those types of discourses, adopting the same theme in an effort to stop their own erosion by attracting more extremist voters. The centre moves a little bit to the right, the left gets pulled in and the campaign is won over by those ideas. And we stand in the storm with the shred of an umbrella, being rained on by oversimplified concepts that ignore the complexity of our world.
immigration can simply be stopped. climate change is not a big deal. you just need to work harder. the poor are poor because they did not work hard enough. migrants steal our work. you fail because you’re not working hard enough. life starts at conception. back in the days, people were fine….
Of course, the media industry falls into the same trap and highlights those topics, putting the most extreme leaders on their front page after a nth debacle. Because it sells. And media needs to sell to survive and if what we buy are those crazy hair politicians headlines, you bet they’re gonna get some free advertising for their policies (which is why they scream so loud, they know how to take the monopoly of the media circus).
Five years later, the situation has significantly worsened. The recent election results in the European Union show a Europe ever-shifting to the right, a vote I want to interpret as a blowback to societal changes. After the initial shock and anger, I took some air and started analysing the results and decided to be - in spite of my nature - optimistic (or delusional). The patriarchal capitalism is frail and, in its last breath, it will destroy everything it can. Especially our hope for a better society and future. But those who refuse change, who cling to the past like a tick on a dog, will go down with it (metaphorically).
/sources + resources/
The Invisible Doctrine, G. Monbiot and P. Hutchison, published by Allen Lane, 2024
Don’t blame voters for a far-right surge in Europe. Blame the far right’s mainstream copycats, the Guardian
Ignorance ain’t strength: what 1984 tells us about fake news – and how to resist it, the Guardian (seems to have been removed from their website)
A year of record global heat has pushed Earth closer to dangerous threshold, the Washington Post
We’re letting Trump distract us from his corrupt, anti-climate agenda, the Washington Post
‘Scary’: public-school textbooks the latest target as US book bans intensify, the Guardian
Reform UK’s rise may tempt Sunak into moving further right. Let the Netherlands be a cautionary tale, the Guardian
Nailing the coffin of my premature journalistic career.
I will explore the ties between patriarchal decline and the rise of far-right parties in a coming article for my series “men through the lens”.
Dear Ms. Kupper,
Thank you for sharing this essay. It is an exemplary report on the changes that have been made and are being made. There is much here that you direct our attention to and I wholly agree with you.
However, I have a problem with tagging these changes to the label of the 'far right' and I have for some time. I can't think of all this damage as being only a far right attack on Democracy, though the people that spearhead these changes are far right. I don't know why this labeling bothers me, but I believe that all of society bears responsibility for this cyclical damage to the varying degrees of progressive or just government institutions humankind has sought to create.
I just want that I or someone will arrive at the label that best describes the movement or people that revile Justice. The kind of people that at every instance of such seeks to dismantle the governing institution that might embody the good that Justice can bring about.
I think maybe I'm just seeking more than a label. Perhaps I really want the root cause or am unsatisfied with the label seeming insufficient. All I know is that that label 'the far right' seems too convenient or easy to use. This is an annoyance that I'll probably have to get over, I think or come up with one that fits for me.
Anyway, thank you for sharing your excellent and accurate observations. I hope that they spread far into the world and move people to fight off the assaults on justice and equity.
I hope that you don't take offense at my nitpicking. I often see others nitpick an excellent piece and it annoys me. Peace.