[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about how democracy, so ill-defined and trampled, is an instrument for many things, but for HR. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
1. All political rhetoric pivots around key words or phrases that resonate with an audience and are evocative of deep-seated images and symbols. One of those words is democracy: There is actually a fetishistic character in the ideology of democracy.
2. Take the US: Among Americans democracy and freedom are deep-seated symbols. This ideology is liberally sprinkled in public communications of all kinds –spoken and written. Democracy and freedom are used interchangeably, for, in their minds, they are shorthand for the entire American experience as it has been absorbed over a lifetime. (Michael Brenner) But, in this period of historical regression, representative democracy alone does not effectively defend itself against anti-democrats. (Boaventura de Sousa Santos)
Democracy is not only the absence of dictatorship (Luis Weinstein)
3. Democracy implies the human rights (HR) of more and more people are extended –with the people themselves deciding what rights they should have. Truly liberal democratic societies, one feels, ought to, in essence, be egalitarian. This is why ‘representative’ democracy simply must be complemented by forms of participatory and direct democracy. But this is not happening and the situation is actually getting worse. Many people crave strong leadership even though that generally means that their own freedoms (and quality of life) –their own rights– are curtailed.* (Colin Tudge)
*: When people reject the leaders in charge, they put their trust in anyone. And often, their search turns to charlatans, mobsters, fanatics, or a lethal mix of all three.” (Martin Wolf, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism).
We say we cannot live without biodiversity, but it is no less true that we cannot live without demodiversity
— There are so many different models of democratic governance that it is sometimes easier to understand the idea of democracy in terms of what it is definitely not. (Council of Europe)
4. To argue that liberal representative democracy is the only possible form of democracy is to accept as a fatality that democracy in the space-time of citizenship is a democratic island in an archipelago of despotisms. (B. de Sousa Santos)
5. Despotic leaders are often good at damaging democracy, but unless they are pure dictators they often still need to worry about winning elections so they maintain the illusion of a democratic free press. (Fanni Toth et al)
Lady democracy, so affronted, is even closer to you than you think
6. Today, they want us to confuse democracy with the right to vote (!) –one of the few rights left to those at the bottom– in order to make us believe that those at the bottom participate, knowing that their condition will not change radically by voting.** [Democracy is then reduced only to procedures?] In all truth, the notion of democracy is used as an instrument of legitimization of the structures of power, domination and wealth. (A. Aharonian)
**: “With democracy we not only vote, but we also eat, educate and cure”. (Raúl Alfonsín) …really?
7. As such, democracy is a luxury imported from the North. The South is just allowed the spectacle –which is purportedly not really denied to anyone. And this does not bother anyone much. When the curtain falls though, once the votes have been cast at the ballot boxes, reality imposes the law of the strongest, which is the law of money. (Eduardo Galeano)
Populism and nationalism represent two discrete political ideologies; however, they may pose potential threats to democracy and human rights (Meherab Hossain and Md. Obaidullah)
8. Populism is a political ideology and approach characterized by the (purported) emphasis on the interests and concerns of ordinary people against established elites or perceived sources of power and privilege. Populist leaders often portray themselves as champions of the ‘common people’ and claim to represent their grievances and desires. It is a political stance that emphasizes the idea of ‘the people’ often contrasting this group against ‘the elite’.
9. Populism often poses a serious risk to democratic institutions when it becomes a threat by undermining formal institutions and functions, discrediting the media, and targeting specific social groups such as immigrants or minorities. This threat arises from its potential to confer a moral legitimacy upon the state –a moral that it otherwise lacks. Consequently, it can jeopardize the defense mechanisms established to safeguard against tyranny, including people’s freedoms, checks and balances, the rule of law, tolerance, autonomous social institutions, individual and collective human rights, as well as pluralism. Populism also elevates the powers of certain social groups above those of others.
10. Nationalism, on the other hand, is an ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpasses other individual or group interests. It posits that there ought to be congruence between the political entity and the nation-state. While populism emphasizes the idea of ‘the people’, nationalism emphasizes the idea of the nation-state.
11. Nationalism often poses a threat to both democracy and international relations when it manifests in forms of discrimination, violence, and the exclusion of specific groups. The ascension of nationalism jeopardizes the established efficacy of multilateralism (that has historically been instrumental in preserving lives and averting conflicts). This often results in unilateral actions by certain nations thereby undermining the collaborative approach to the peaceful resolution of disputes. Such strategies often prioritize individual national objectives over the collective global interest. Unrestrained nationalism poses a threat to stability by inflaming ethnic tensions, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence, conflict and HR violations. (M. Hossain, Md. Obaidullah)
Bottom line
12. ‘Democracy’ ultimately wiggles through (but not so HR!). It actually barely survives as-if-escaped-from-a-train-wreck: it is difficult to recognize it without using DNA analysis. (Louis Casado)
13. Democracies do not necessarily die by force of arms.*** They die when people remain silent, when they do not mobilize and condemn attacks against democracy. We know we are in trouble when people are ready to abandon what is most precious to them, because they are confronted with frustration, disillusionment, fatigue and a feeling of exclusion. [Hard as it may be to believe, the author of this quote is none other than Joe Biden, and it is recent (09/28/2023)].
***: It is curious that a) in the name of democracy and freedom, governments elected by their peoples have been overthrown and continue to be overthrown and b) that, after these uprisings, their most prominent promoters claim the praise of democracy. And, when the dust settles, they try to convince the world that a corrupt and incompetent regime simply had to be replaced… Therefore, in each country, claim holders must be more vigilant about those who, from the very first day, do not condemn the conspiracy thus making themselves accomplices of what happens(ed). (Juan Pablo Cardenas)
14. Was, then, Machiavellian Henry Kissinger right when he said: To be democracy’s enemy is dangerous while to be its friend is fatal? Food for thought…
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com