Democratic Erosion by Autocratic Leaders
Democracy is fading away.
Only 9% of the world’s population lives in high-performing democracies.
More than a quarter of the world’s population now lives in democracies which are eroding.
The absolute number of democracies has been decreasing since 2006. More democracies than ever before are experiencing democratic erosion. The number of democratically regressive countries has never been greater than in the last decade.
Democratic erosion is a decline in democratic quality manifested by a statistically significant decline in at least one aspect of democracy. It is the sustained and deliberate subversion of basic democratic tenets by political actors and governments.
Democratic erosion is on the verge of becoming a new type of pandemic. According to various measures of good governance and rule of law, there is an increasing incidence of democratic breakdowns, democratic backsliding, and poor performance of democracies all over the world.
Fully fledged authoritarian regimes are also growing in number, and their leaders are acting ever more brazenly. These regimes are bolstered by a lack of sufficient geopolitical pressure and support from other autocratic powers.
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Some authoritarian regimes thrive on the narrative that authoritarian governance is more effective for economic prosperity and pandemic management. Citizens of democracies are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their institutions. They are increasingly drawn to alternative, even autocratic, regime forms.
Over the past few years, oppressive and frequently violent authoritarian forces have repeatedly tilted the balance of power in their favour. They have taken advantage of both the strengths of nondemocratic systems and the weaknesses of ailing democracies. They spread the narrative that democracy is inherently inferior, which is why it is deteriorating continuously.
This viewpoint is supported by official commentators from China and Russia. These two countries want to increase their global influence without being held accountable for wrongdoing. Both are promoting and accelerating the disintegration of democracy. The antidemocratic actors see a chance to consolidate control within democracies.
Democracy under siege
Democracy’s defenders sustained heavy losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes. The international balance has been shifted in favour of tyranny. The countries experiencing deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded. This negative trend began in 2006.
The long democratic recession is deepening. The impact of the long-term democratic decline has become increasingly global in nature. The impact is broad enough to be felt by those living under brutal dictatorships as well as by citizens of long-standing democracies. Nearly 75% of the world’s population now lives in a country that has faced deterioration in the last 10 years.
The proliferation of COVID-19, which began in early 2020, has made the decline of freedom more pronounced. Governments in all democracies have used excessive monitoring and discriminatory limits on rights to movement and assembly. Governments have used arbitrary or violent enforcement of such restrictions by law enforcement and non-state actors.
The communication infrastructures of many nations were flooded by waves of false and misleading information. Some of the misinformation was created on purpose by political leaders.
Ultimately, the changes precipitated by the pandemic left many societies in worse political condition, with more pronounced racial, ethnic, and gender inequalities, and vulnerable to long-term effects. Marginalized populations are bearing the brunt of the economic impact of Corona virus, which has aggravated income inequality among other disparities.
Why is democracy eroding?
There are presuppositions like: Democracy is the goal that countries are seeking, democracy is considered the global standard of political legitimacy, and it is the best system for achieving the kind of prosperity and effective governance that almost all countries seek.
What has changed most dramatically in recent years is that these presuppositions are increasingly being called into question. There are three chief reasons for this shift:
1. The growing sense that advanced democracies are in trouble in terms of their economic and political performance
2. The new self-confidence and seeming vitality of some authoritarian countries; and
3. The shifting geopolitical balance between the democracies and their rivals.
The 2008 financial crisis and its ongoing economic repercussions, such as the recession and rising unemployment rates, were the primary causes of the poor economic performance.
These setbacks for the advanced democracies challenged the idea that the institutions and policies of the West were deserving of imitation by “the rest” at a time when emerging-market nations were expanding quickly.
The advanced democracies’ appeal was further diminished by the political dysfunction that plagued them as they attempted to address the crisis. Many people throughout the world now have very low opinions of democracy as a result of the struggles of democratic countries in both the US and Europe.
The growing influence of certain prominent authoritarian regimes has been the flip side of democracy’s declining reputation. The most notable of these is China, which has advanced economically significantly without enacting democratic reforms. This has called into question the idea that democracy is the only suitable political system for prosperous nations.
China is also offering alternative non-western markets, trading partners, and sources of military and development aid to African governments. This help is unrelated to concerns about human rights or political accountability in the receiving states.
Autocracy Inc.
Autocratic regimes like China and Russia have built a network of sorts — Autocracy Inc.” — that enables and supports further anti-democratic erosion. China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela have been exchanging knowledge and even working together directly to obstruct the development of democracy.
The leaders of these countries use this network to increase their riches and power at the expense of their own people, despite widespread criticism of their actions from around the globe.
Authoritarian leaders are mobilizing public support for their ‘strong man’ leadership and governance style. They are making societies more polarized and dysfunctional.
They are capturing the public’s dissatisfaction with the performance of democracy. They are making sophisticated use of technologies and disinformation tactics to accelerate the rise of authoritarianism and populism.
The rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the disappointed hopes of the “Arab Spring”, the comeback of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Russia’s brazen annexation of Crimea and stealth invasion of Ukraine showed that the rules-based international order built by democratic powers could no longer be taken for granted and that western efforts to impose some kind of order and encourage democracy all over the world are failing.
Meanwhile, China’s muscle-flexing in the East and South China Seas seemed to foreshadow a return to the use of force in Asia. Moreover, China and Russia take a militaristic stance towards the outside world. Any compromises made by them are merely tactical in nature and are not intended to persist.
The liberal world order is coming apart under pressure from authoritarians. The world is divided into spheres of influence and power blocs. A country’s ability to follow a democratic path is determined above all by its international alliances and its geography.
It increasingly looks as if the fate of democracy in the countries of the post-communist world will depend on which side of the emerging border they find themselves between Russia and the European Union.
This new salience of geopolitics threatens to change the rules of the game. It limits the centrality of the internal balance of forces in shaping a country’s regime choices. It also increases the chances that the imposition of external force will be decisive.
Moreover, the geopolitical balance appears to be tilting the authoritarians’ way. So, they seem much more attractive to the many individuals and nations that seek to be on the stronger side. Under these conditions, democracy is losing much of its lustre.
Today, it does seem that authoritarianism has the wind at its back. Authoritarians have made progress in the realm of “soft power,” especially in major regional and multilateral organizations. Russia and China are ramping up their cultural diplomacy and international broadcasting.
The western efforts in these fields have been unfocused and underfunded. The advanced democracies are looking weaker in terms of hard power as well. They are compelled to shrink their defense budgets even as authoritarian states spend more on arms.
Responsibility of citizens
We all know that — “democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Therefore, it's very foundation rests on its people, their beliefs, and their desire to be ruled by a leader who is capable of ensuring their safety and overall well-being. A responsible democracy exhibits comprehensive respect for accountability from its citizens.
Once we’ve realized that we can be friends with people who don’t see the world precisely as we do, the real change can begin.
Democracy promotes fundamental values such as religious freedom and labor rights. It also helps create a more secure, stable, and prosperous global arena. Therefore, we must continuously promote democracy as a means to achieve security, stability, and prosperity for the entire world.
We must resolve to see that whatever we do, we do not help the enemies of democracy uproot the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
We must strive, along with the citizens of other democratic countries, to maintain the basis of democratic civilization.
If democracy lives, we are sure to reap the benefits of it.
If democracy dies, it will be our doom.
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