Member-only story
Opinion | Politics
Yes, We Are a Democracy
Reflections on a loaded word
Democracy is getting a lot of attention these days. While that, in itself, is wonderful, it’s also a profound political tragedy that would make an Ancient Greek dramatist proud. If you’re like me, you’re worried about the ongoing siege of democracy as an institution. This isn’t partisan. Some from every party—from Republicans to Democrats and Independents, in the U.S., and Labour to Conservative and Liberal Democrats in the U.K.—can, in theory, agree that democracy is good. But it’s also imperiled.
As democracy comes under assault worldwide, many of us have taken a step back to reflect on the system that we’ve long taken for granted. It’s sobering that such a reflection only awakens once we realize how fragile our democracies are. Half of the world’s democracies are declining, driven by the unchecked spread of disinformation and a growing sense of cynicism and discontentedness people feel. Small, growing, vocal minorities in nations worldwide are forsaking democratic values.
It’s the great 20th-century hangover. We made so much progress after WWII, that, now, at the start of the new millennium — as technological progress reaches breakneck speed — there’s a skulking sense of “Now what?” Our technologies are rapidly evolving, our sociopolitical…
