Is Democracy Doomed to Fail?
In recent decades, it has been assumed by much of the world that democracy was the best form of government and that it would continue to expand around the world as more countries sought to win the support, and emulate the success, of the leading democracies in North America, Europe and parts of Asia. However, recent elections in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have led many experts to warn that the future of democracy is in serious jeopardy. Moreover, democracy has been rolled back (or failed to get off the ground) in many of the world’s most powerful states in the 21st century and they are offering non-democratic alternatives to countries vacillating between democracy and totalitarianism. Now, the very future of democracy is being called into question and it cannot be taken for granted that the world’s future is democratic.
The two primary forms of democratic political systems, presidential and parliamentary, are both struggling to deal with the political and economic transformations that are continuing in many areas of the world. The most pressing issue has been the fragmentation of political parties and movements, with long-dominant parties and movements losing support, often to more radical movements on the political right and left. In presidential systems, many of the most qualified candidates are not willing to endure the costly and exhausting campaigns that are now required to win a presidential election. For example, a review of the candidates in this year’s presidential election in the United States, or next year’s election in France, reveals two groups of less-than-ideal candidates. Meanwhile, parliamentary systems have been severely damaged by the fragmentation of political parties and movements in recent decades, as this has led to great difficulties of forming coalition governments that control a majority of seats in the parliament. Just look at the recent examples of Belgium, Greece and now Spain, where forming new coalition governments have lasted for months and months and have often led to new elections having to take place when it has proved impossible to actually form a new government.
A host of threats are putting the future of presidential and parliamentary democracies in jeopardy. First and foremost is the simple fact that, in many countries, people are losing faith in their democratically-elected governments, as evidenced by the low approval ratings of so many governments and their leaders around the world. In fact, average approval ratings for governments have trended downwards in most countries in recent decades, as voters expect more, and believe they receive less, from their governments. Meanwhile, the loss of stable long-term working class jobs and the increasingly importance of small- and medium-sized business has dramatically transformed voting patterns in developed economies and led to a major increase in disaffected voters in these countries. As the economy has changed, and as the world has grown more inter-connected (for better or worse), right-wing and left-ring extremism has risen and this has led to the rise of new leaders and parties on the far-right and the far-left, making it harder to form new governments or to select presidential candidates.
Looking ahead, there is no guarantee that the democratic system of government will remain the dominant system of government in many areas of the world. Athenian democracy collapsed due to defeat on the battlefield in the Peloponnesian War, whereas Roman democracy was brought to an end after decades of civil war and political chaos discredited it as the form of government for Rome. It is this latter example that should be noted by today’s democracies, as dissatisfaction with this form of government is on the rise in many areas of the world, while chaos and conflict threaten democracies in less stable regions. There can be no question that democracy has served many of the world’s leading powers very well, most notably the United States, which has emerged as the champion of the democratic form of government in many areas of the world. However, if the US and many of the world’s other leading democracies find that their form of government is failing to meet the expectations of their citizens, the future of democracy must be considered to be in doubt. Add factors such as a dramatically changing global economy, widespread political unrest and the growing threat of terrorism, and democracy is facing its greatest threat in recent decades.