Half of the World's Democracies Are in Retreat
Time - According to an annual report on the state of global democracy by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA, half of the world’s democratic nations are in retreat. The most concerning cases can be found among the world’s biggest and most influential democracies, such as India, Brazil, and the United States.
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I hypothesize:
People are mainly controlled by emotion, and Fear and Hate are primary motivating factors.
In past eras of unfair, cruel, and primitive governmental and economic systems, people hated and feared the authoritarian rulers. Those rulers tried various methods to remain in control, one using ‘the church’ to support their claim; and also by creating ‘family ties’ through marriage to rulers of other countries, and thus preventing wars through a united front against other possible rivals for power. Of course, we know now that religious wars can be even stronger emotional conflicts, and sibling rivalries aren’t much better.
And so, over the centuries, stupid inbred monarchs were slowly forced to enact agreements with the hoi polloy; not that anybody necessarily knew what they were doing, but out of Fear and Hate they slowly developed a working system that developed rights and responsibilities for rulers and ‘the people’.
Now, we live in what might be considered a modern, civilized country (U.S.), in a modern civilized world, for the most part. But, we again live in Fear and Hate. Fear because of the complexity of ‘life’ and our inability to have, or at least feel control about our world around us. And Hate for what some perceive as those things that they think are causing those Fears – foreigners, other religions, other races, gender issues, economics, and governmental struggles.
Maybe now, the perceived democratic type government has become something that fails to provide ‘safety’ from many of those Fears, thus invoking Hate; especially from those with ‘something-to-loose’, either monetarily or socially or religiously. Of course in today’s world, as in medieval times, people from one group will align themselves with another to achieve a more influential front against any perceived threats.
And so, there appears to now be affluent groups that can afford expensive guns, and the ability to gather for periods of time, causing political and personal physical damage. My hypothesis is that Fear and Hate are making individuals long for the ‘good-old-times’ where the ‘ruler’ was more authoritarian. Of course, now, the authoritarian leader would need to be somebody that ‘they’, and only ‘they’ approve of. Their religion, their race, their culture, etc.
Obviously, what we have now is an ‘imperfect’ democracy. Money has become too much a part of ‘government’. Political parties have become shills for ‘religion’ and ‘corporations’, initially only to garner votes, but now it seems that the ‘tail’ may actually ‘wag-the-dog’. Gone is the perceived existence of a benign, respectable government.
The ‘poor’ have no ‘say’. The ‘haves’ do have everything, and appear to want more. More than a democracy.
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