Democracy In America Is Dying

Democracy is Dying

Introduction

Democracy is the most typical system of government around the contemporary world. It can be defined as a system of governance whereby power is exercised by the citizens of a country through the process of fair vote casting (Freedom House 2018). The voted candidates represent the needs of the majority who voted for them, inclusive of the minority who did not vote for them. In light of this, the people have a voice on who should represent their matters to the government, making this system of governance fair and promoting equity. However, the system of governance has been researched to be in a state of dying, therefore, making this a contentious topic of discussion. Due to the political development that has been felt in some countries over recent years, democracy has been reported to be dying in these countries, or rather, oscillating between liberal vision which promotes equity, and a communitarian vision which is aimed at cherishing democracy in collectivist terms (Linker 2019). Less politically developed countries do not experience the latter, and such, argue still that democracy is not dying. This paper aims at shedding light on this contentious issue.

Stakeholders

A majority of countries in the European region agree with the contentious matter that, it is indeed true, democracy is dying. Such countries include the United States of America, the country where democracy originated from, Britain, China, among others. Citizens in these countries agree with the contentious issue of democracy dying as a result of the inequality challenges encountered in these countries. For instance, black Americans believe that they are treated unequally as compared to their white counterparts (The Economist 2018). As a result, white counterparts are against democracy dying since they enjoy their rights and freedoms in America as compared to people of other ethnic backgrounds. These countries are politically developed, and hence, oscillate between democracy and liberalism as mentioned earlier. However, countries where democracy is still intact, including India, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, Malawi, among others.

Balanced View Article Analysis

According to Oberhaus, researchers misunderstand the concept of democracy dying in the contemporary world. As such, he sheds light on the matter through the use of the complex systems theory which defines how democracy is dying and the reasons leading to the death of this stable form of governance. In his article, he discusses that in the last decade, democracy has been under crisis because there has been a registered increment in right-wing populism in countries that democracy is dying. Some of these countries include Brazil and the United States. The elite group in these nations have considered their concerns more vital than those of the other normal citizens, and in this manner, equity cannot be achieved, which is the basic principle for democracy (Oberhaus 2018). As a result of populism, democratic countries have become the handmaiden of the corporate people located in the country. This information is true based on the current political conditions that are prevalent in the United States of America today. Politics in the country is dominated by the corporate minds who dictate the people who are going to rule the country.

The complex system theory focuses on two features, stability ad feedback loops. In studying these features, it is evident why democracies have been experiencing backsliding. Despite the role that corporates have in the backsliding of democracy, the citizens also play a crucial role as they have been destabilizing democracy through abandoning the norms and institutions that have been key in upholding democracy (Oberhaus 2018). The citizens themselves are attracted to autocratic regime types of governments, which infringe directly on equity. This article has a balanced view of the concept of democracy dying since it gives a balanced cause of factors that undermine democracy to be both the citizens and the corporates in the country. As such, everyone is to blame for failing democracies around the world today.

The evidence provided for the death of democracy in countries around the World by Freedom House is undeniable as it measures the democracy index of a country of interest. The index takes into account several factors that are related to democracy, for instance, fair elections, civil liberties, free press, among others (Oberhaus 2018). Results from the House prove that almost half of the countries worldwide have reported cases of dropping the democracy index for twelve years in a row since the establishment of the index. Figure 1. (The Economist 2018) Captures countries that have flawed democracy for the past twelve years, including the United States of America.

It is evident that the United States democracy was in a flawed region according to the map that is provided above. This is concrete evidence about the dying state of democracy worldwide.

According to Daniel, democracy is also dying as a result of the political and socio-economic systems that are prevalent in the contemporary world. The factors are directly connected to the feedback loops feature of complex systems theory which was mentioned earlier. For instance, Daniel discusses how healthy democracy and economic inequality are related. When economic inequality is great, that is, the economic gap between the poor and the rich is big, democracy commences declining. An example of such a scenario is the Great Depression which took place back in the year 2008 (Oberhaus 2018). This can be marked as the year where democracy was affected significantly, hence started dying.

Biased View Article Analysis

According to Linker, democracy is discussed not to be dying, unlike liberalism. Liberalism fosters the idea of equity between all people and analysing the situation in countries like Brazil, America, Hungary, among others, equity is considered to be in jeopardy (Linker 2019). For instance, President Trump was voted in by Americans despite his allegations of deporting non- American natives back to their countries. This shows that populists or rather right-wing nationalists are preferred in leading modern-day countries, hence leading to the death of liberalism. The article discusses the ease of conversion of this state of death of liberalism, which is directly blamed upon Trump.

In the light of the previous discussion, the article can be considered biased as a result of blaming the death of liberalism, or equity, on one person, Donald Trump. The death of equity, as mentioned earlier in the paper, can be caused by a sum of factors that involve the citizens being governed (Linker 2019). Political development, economic inequality and cultural factors are also crucial in determining whether equity in a country can be achieved or not. In addition to this, the death of liberalism cannot be reversed as quickly as the article by Linker proposes. It is because the death of liberalism is a gradual process which means that repairing will as well take as much time. Due to these arguments, the article can be considered to be containing biased information concerning the death of democracy and liberalism.

The article uses information in ancient Athens to validate its claims. In ancient Athens, democracy was open, and anybody from the public would have been called upon to serve the people (Linker 2019). However, modern democracies are closed and involve the electing of representatives who are supposed to address and present the needs of their people to the governing body of the country. As a result, the validating methods used in the article can be discussed to be biased as well. Figure 2. (Freedom House 2018) captures the number of countries that democracy is dying compared to those that democracy is on the rise, which is in contrast to Linker’s article, which discusses on how democracy is growing rather than dying.

My Opinion-Conclusion

Democracy, from my perspective, is dying around the globe, and immediate attention needs to be given to the subject to stop it from becoming severe. Democracy ensures that we all live in a fair world where everybody’s rights and freedoms ought to be respected. However, if democracy dies, chaos will be established, leading to a harsh world that would only bring terror to its people. Democracy is considered to be dying as the result of the proof provided by the two graphical illustrations presented in this paper.

Similarly, the reasons which have been given in the analysis of the first article are undeniable and include political development, economic inequality, cultural reasons, amongst others. Political development leads to populism, where the corporate people have a say on who is going to rule the country, which violates the basic foundations of democracy. As such, right-wing nationalism needs to be aborted altogether if democracy is to be revived in the countries where it is dying. Inequality, in economic terms, should be minimised as far as possible to ensure that the poverty gap is closed so that equity and fairness can be achieved. Therefore, this contentious issue needs to be agreed on first, and then possible recommendations and solutions provided to end this menace.