Why is the world turning away from democracy?
It ain’t looking good chief
It was the early 1990s, the Soviet Union was collapsing, democratic movements were thriving and it seemed that the only superpower left standing would be the United States. International Relations experts were claiming that we were seeing the dawn of the ‘end of history’, a period where the world would be swept up in liberal, capitalist democracy. The new millennium would dash these hopes and the 2010s-2020s would see the number of democracies actually decline for the first time in a while. The People’s Republic of China, A once communist regime would take the powers of capitalism and launch itself to superpower status and the far right would reemerge in the Democratic world, spewing up painful and dangerous Neo-Fascist ideas back into the political mainstream as a snake oil cure to the ills of today. Where the hell did, we go wrong? Who is to blame for this sad state of affairs? How can we put the world back onto the path of genuine universal democracy, without the imperial abuses of the United States of America?
Show me the money
Money has been called the root of all evil, and in this case that quip proves itself true. The conservative wave of Reagan and Thatcher set the Democratic World into a new era of deregulation. Capitalism’s worst traits, that were once contained by the post-World War Two welfare state, was now freed from societal responsibility and parameters by Neo-Liberals who thought that the free market would take care of everything.
For a while it seemed to work, even the major left-wing parties of the Democratic World such as the American Democrats or the United Kingdom’s Labour Party would discard their democratic socialist heritage and enthusiastically compete with conservatives to see who could privatize first, who could cut the most regulations or welfare programs. Taxes were down, stocks were skyrocketing and Columbia’s GDP was well served by an endless wave of bankers who needed a little white lightening to get through the day. It never occurred to Generation X why their parents often willingly put increased taxes on themselves and the richest among them for society’s benefits.
The Baby Boomers and their parents built the welfare state because they saw what happens when wealth becomes so entrenched that social mobility is nonexistent. They lived through the horrors of Fascism and Stalinist Communism both of which thrive on empty stomachs and empty dreams. They saw the economic depressions that wracked the world and the bread lines that followed. They knew that in order to secure their societies, everyone had to have at least a chance to thrive, a chance to better the lives of their children. Capitalism would work, but only when it was saved from itself through socialistic policies. This critical lesson, which came at the costs of tens of millions of lives; was entirely lost on Generation X who thought that political extremism and economic hardship were ghost stories from the past.
The keys to the universe, misused and abused
We cannot talk about our current political and economic predicament without mentioning the United States. It proclaimed itself the protector of democracy yet abused it greatly. First in South America during the Cold War with a series of coups and interventions that overthrew democratically elected governments, often to support American business interests. Which shall stain the United States for decades in that region. Then once the Soviet’s (the primary justification for any horrid episode of modern American foreign policy) were finally dissolving in upon themselves, The US had a once in a century opportunity to embrace former enemies and convince them of the merits of democracy. What did America’s leadership decide to do? Put Russia through such a period of economic shock therapy that it sliced the GDP of the former USSR in half… Half, in a single year. It forever poisoned democracy in the former Eastern Bloc and lead to another foreign policy boomerang, the rise of the hard right President Putin. Who rather than embracing the Democratic World as a brother, instead is designing hypersonic missiles to combat it.
This string of failures in foreign policy were finally topped off by the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The former, a barely concealed oil grab which should have never happened, the latter should have relied on local actors and limited special force deployments; not an invasion that mimicked the Soviet’s to a tee. An invasion which only further strengthened the fascistic terrorists that have nested in that region. The model for what should have happened can be seen in Obama’s Anti-ISIS campaign, a venture that involved both local actors such as the Kurdish People's Protection Units and their government in Rojava, and the international community such as Australia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. However, it was the locals, not America who were doing most of the fighting. Democracy cannot be imposed through the barrel of a foreigner’s M4 rifle.
Furthermore, with the dismissal of the People’s Republic of China as a doomed regime, set to implode like the Soviet’s. The United States did not prepare for the eventuality that they would return to superpower status. the benefits of capitalism can be adopted without the democracy that everyone usually likes with it. They forgot their time with Taiwan when it was under a military dictatorship, people were getting wealthy and for the most part didn’t want to challenge the government. Critical time that could have been spent negotiating with China and getting them more involved with the International Liberal Order was wasted. As such, the leadership of China is suspicious of this system and now seeks to undermine it.
Finally, America’s disregard for the UN and International law in the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent War on Terror would have disastrous effects for the Democratic World. Now dictatorships around the world point to those wars as a reason why you can’t trust democracies. Much to the Washington Post’s dismay, if your country keeps breaking the rules and creating chaos whilst claiming democracy, people are going to start listening to authoritarians like Putin or Xi.
Conclusion
These two factors, Neo-Liberal economics and failed American imperialism have contributed the most to the globe’s current ills. As America seems set on returning to the old ways with the election of Biden, the threats of Far-Right extremism will only get worse. The Middle East continue to implode further and the South China Sea will bring the world to the edge of war. Only by rallying the Democracies, empowering their peoples with the means to attain a decent life and collectively solving problems through international organizations like the United Nations, will we be able to strive for a better world. A world of universal democracy, of a federation of freedom stretching from East to West, North to South.