CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY
Nicholas You 25/04/2020
My perspective comes from an expatriate working and
living in Africa, USA, China and Europe. There is no doubt in my mind that the
so-called western parliamentarian democratic system is in a profound crisis.
This has been more than evident in Western Europe where the system is incapable
of taking decisions of strategic and long term importance.
Almost everything, from transport, to energy, to welfare, to immigration, etc. is being decided on the basis of short term interests and perceived political gains.
COVID-19, in almost every western democracy, has revealed the consequences and the heavy price being paid in lack of long-term forward-looking planning, budgeting and, most importantly, bridging social inequalities and injustices.
In Italy, where I live half the year, more than 140 doctors and an untold number of nurses and care takers have died because the so-called democratic system was too busy arguing the pros and cons of different measures to be taken instead of what was clearly required to flatten the curve, namely lock down, protecting front line workers, undertaking mass testing and strictly enforcing physical distancing.
The western parliamentarian democratic system was, in hindsight, absolutely necessary in the post-WWII stage – it was, together with decentralisation, a means of guaranteeing peace. It focused the hearts and minds of people in Europe on social, economic and cultural development at the local level.
It is working less well in places where it was imposed by the West on other countries.
The system is no longer fit for purpose – it needs to be re-invented. I have seen more deprivation in Southern Europe than I have in many other places on this planet. It is disguised with unsustainable subsidies that guarantee one’s survival but leave absolutely no human dignity.
Almost everything, from transport, to energy, to welfare, to immigration, etc. is being decided on the basis of short term interests and perceived political gains.
COVID-19, in almost every western democracy, has revealed the consequences and the heavy price being paid in lack of long-term forward-looking planning, budgeting and, most importantly, bridging social inequalities and injustices.
In Italy, where I live half the year, more than 140 doctors and an untold number of nurses and care takers have died because the so-called democratic system was too busy arguing the pros and cons of different measures to be taken instead of what was clearly required to flatten the curve, namely lock down, protecting front line workers, undertaking mass testing and strictly enforcing physical distancing.
The western parliamentarian democratic system was, in hindsight, absolutely necessary in the post-WWII stage – it was, together with decentralisation, a means of guaranteeing peace. It focused the hearts and minds of people in Europe on social, economic and cultural development at the local level.
It is working less well in places where it was imposed by the West on other countries.
The system is no longer fit for purpose – it needs to be re-invented. I have seen more deprivation in Southern Europe than I have in many other places on this planet. It is disguised with unsustainable subsidies that guarantee one’s survival but leave absolutely no human dignity.
I don’t think we have ever witnessed so much concentration
of wealth among so few. Each economic and financial crisis we have witnessed in
the past two decades was caused by unbridled greed. The consequences, each
time, was the socialisation of losses and the privatisation of gains.
At the same time, we talk about corruption and the role of an independent media and justice systems to help reign in corrupt practices. I have witnessed, in the past decade, corruption in Europe, the US and Japan that are comparable to the worst I have seen in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The so-called checks and balances system is clearly failing in the majority of cases.
Democracy should be viewed as an ongoing 2000 year experiment, with careful observation and analysis. While there are admittedly few alternatives on the horizon, the western parliamentarian model is clearly lacking and needs a major injection of innovation before it is further proposed, often hastily, as a governance system for others
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