Is democracy in retreat?
sistently ranked “Free” from 1985 to 2005, slightly more than half or 22 have registered net score declines in the past five years.
The US, for example, has a score of 86, a drop from 94 in 2009.
This decline is attributed partly to the growing inequality in the country and the loss of relative real income for the white middle class, but is also due to the frustration of citizens who feel that “big money in politics, racism and discrimination, and the inability of government to with GDP per capita increasing by 16 times from 1990 to 2017”.
What happens in the US would be a litmus test for electoral democracy across the world.
This is because its president likes to call the media “fake news”, questioning the impartiality of the judiciary and the law enforcement agencies.
The US executive is currently engaged in a critical power struggle over the checks and balances by the legislature and judiciary, as written in the US Constitution.
Indeed, the ills of America are increasingly being blamed on foreigners, immigrants and outsiders, so America First is essentially an inward shift in outlook and a retreat from the second leg of American Exceptionalism, which was the ideology that America would bring electoral democracy and her values to the rest of the world.
Steve Bannon’s recent op-ed that the US is in an economic war with China is a political diversion that benefits only the armaments industry and market short-sellers.
Most retail investors simply feel helpless when their wealth evaporate on more talks of war.
Existential threat
Other American experts, such as Michigan Professor Ronald Inglehart think that “today’s retreat [in democracy] will be reversed only if rich countries address the growing inequality of recent decades and manage the transition to the automated economy”.
True, the disruption in technology from social media and job losses are important reasons for the swing towards protectionist populism.
But both Bannon and Inglehart forget about another existential threat – global warming.
The rich (and most rich country experts) tend to have a blind spot about global warming because this has been the “slow burn” problem that affects the rich less than the poor countries.
But as forest fires destroy rich homes in California and freak hurricanes affect Florida and Puerto Rico, there is growing awareness that the six hottest years in recorded history will begin to affect us all.
Will an economic war between the two largest economies in the world solve unemployment, inequality and the looming global warming disasters?
No. War of any kind will only worsen all the current problems and allow the suspensions of more and more freedoms in the name of conducting war.
The Climate Kids protesting in London this month got their priorities right, arguing that politicians should focus on the common threat of climate and social change, rather than squabbling on endless politicking with little concrete results.
It is no coincidence that temperatures are rising around the world, both physical and emotional.
Hot rhetoric can only lead to conflicts.
What we need are cool heads and warm hearts, not another road to serfdom.