VALUING DEMOCRACY IS VALUING ONESELF

Today is the International of Democracy

Authored article by Samuel Praveen Kumar

WARANGAL, SEPTEMBER 15, 2024: Democracy is still in trouble, stagnant at best, and declining in many places observed the Global State of Democracy 2024 report. In this backdrop the 18^th International Day of Democracy on 15^th September 2024 with the theme ‘Empowering the Next Generation’, it is an unavoidable global imperative to retrospect and critically analyse the onflow of democracy in post-pandemic and AI era. Though Democracy is widely accepted form of government world over, there is neither single definition nor any pick-out model of democracy. Etymologically Democracy or Greek ‘Domokratia’ comes from demos ‘people’ and Kratos ‘rule’ which means ‘Rule of the People’. Democracy is a form of government that empowers the people to exercise political control, limits the power of the government, provides for the separation of powers to enable checks and balances between governmental entities, and ensures the protection of natural rights and civil liberties. In practice, democracy takes many different forms. Along with the two most common types of democracies—direct and representative—variants such as participatory, liberal, parliamentary, presidential, pluralist, constitutional, and socialist democracies are in use today. Elected Autocracy is the emerging variant of democracy that is worrying the epistles of democracy the world over.

Democracy Report 2024, a signature publication of the V-Dem Institute, shows that autocratisation continues to be the dominant trend in recent decades. Democratic volatility has been more specific in the past few years. Since 2009 the share of the world’s population living in autocratising countries has overshadowed the share in democratizing countries. The decline in democratic governance is glaring and stark in Eastern Europe and South and Central Asia. In contrast, Latin America and the Caribbean are sailing against the global trend observes the report.

It is observed that the world is almost divided between 91 democracies and 88 autocracies, as per the analysis of V-Dem. But 71% of the world’s population – 5.7 billion people – live in autocracies – an increase from 48% ten years ago. Autocratization is ongoing in 42 countries, home to 2.8 billion people, or 35% of the world’s population. India, with 18% of the world’s population, accounts for about half of the population living in autocratizing countries. Though the report is refuted as ‘inaccurate and distorted’ by the Minister of External Affairs Mr. S. Jaishankar, it calls for hawk-eye observation of the functioning of the democratic process in the country.

Components of democracy like freedom of expression, free and fair elections, freedom of press, freedom of association, independence of constitutional bodies and so on are worst affected in many countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has galvanized support for democracy in Europe, but made clear what is at stake when democratization efforts fail—as they have in Russia. On the other side democratization is taking place in 18 countries, harbouring only 400 million people, or 5% of the world’s population. Brazil makes up more than half of this, with its 216 million inhabitants.

India’s neighbourhood in the past decade and a half has witnessed a startling seesaw scenario of democracy in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Sheikh Hasina’s popularly elected government replacing the military rule of General Moeen U. Ahmed in 2009 in Bangladesh, was dethroned recently alleging autocratization. In 2022, Sri Lanka had its own Bangladesh episode when its President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, raison d’etre mismanagement of the economy and a repressive outlash. Strangling a decade-long interlude of democracy in Myanmar the military seized back control over the country in February 2021. In August 2021, the Taliban forcibly captured power after two decades, turning the clock back towards autocracy in Afghanistan.

India’s experience with democracy for the past seven decades has been remarkably resilient and successful, thanks to the robust constitution, which placed rule of law intact. When democracy in most of the third world countries crumbled, India had an almost uninterrupted democracy, except for the Emergency between 1975 and 1977. In spite of odds like colonial legacy, huge diversity among populace, economic underdevelopment, wars in quick succession from 1962 to 1975, bipolar world politics etc., India is successful in navigating with a stable parliamentary democracy. Elections at federal and state levels have been held regularly in a competitive multiparty system, albeit not without instances of vote buying and corruption. The transfers of power between governments have also been peaceful so far.

Our constitution, our national creed of liberty and equality, our value system, robust middle class, independent constitutional bodies – we believe all these should inoculate India from the kind of democracy decay that occurred elsewhere. We try reassuring ourselves that things can’t be that bad here.

But the recent experiences bring to light that ‘road to breakdown of democracy is dangerously deceptive’. Blatant dictatorship, in the form of fascism, communism or military rule has disappeared across much of the world. Military coups and other violent seizures of power are rare. Democracies still die, but by different means. Since the end of Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves. People still vote. Constitutions and other nominally democratic institutions remain in place. Elected autocrats maintain a veneer of democracy while eviscerating its substance. Signs of democratic erosion became clear even in United States, one of the oldest and strong democracy, when Donald Trump refused to transfer power to Joe Biden after 2020 Presidential elections.

Erosion of democracy does happen accompanied by warning signs which normally are ignored for selfish gains. Elected autocrats subvert democracy – packing and ‘weaponizing’ the courts and other neutral agencies, buying of media, private and public sector, building up corporate monopolies and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. Institutions become political weapons, wielded forcefully by those who control them against those who do not. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy – gradually, subtly, and even legally – to kill it. Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box.

Greek philosopher Plato’s observations, in his book the Republic, are relevant in the present scenario. Plato asserts that democracy is always susceptible to the danger of a demagogue who rises to power by pleasing the crowd and, in doing so, commits terrible acts of immorality and depravity. This ultimately leads to the complete collapse of the democratic order, which results in tyranny.

Democracy is not a free gift – it comes with a value. Democracy and constitutionalism evolved after centuries of struggle, long fought revolutions, freedom struggles, sacrifice of lives and persisting desire for self-rule. Sustaining democracy too need commitment towards democratic norms, constitutional obedience, independent judiciary and press, strong opposition, and eternal vigilance of the people. Without robust norms, constitutional checks and balances do not serve as the bulwarks of democracy. The weakening of democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization, which inevitably kills democracy. Valuing democracy is valuing oneself, because democracy fosters individual liberty, dignity, natural and civil rights and rule of law.