in International Situations, Politics 452 Words

Democracy In Retreat

I do hope everyone had a good and fun infused holiday weekend…..that behind us it is time for me to return to my posting schedule (some will be happy other not so much)….

For a very long time now the US has been this symbol of democracy and happy living…..

We decide it was our place to bring democracy to the Middle East…..we even killed their leader to make it possible for democracy to flourish…..it was a failed experiment…..

Then there was the hope for democracy in the Middle East thanks to the Arab Spring protests…..that was also a failure…the only country that moved toward democracy was Tunisia, where the Spring began….the rest was a face falling disaster…..

Democracy is being challenged today as never before since the end of the Cold War. Freedom House has recorded ten consecutive years during which democracy and human rights have declined in more countries than it has advanced. There have been setbacks and backsliding in countries as diverse as Thailand, Venezuela, Hungary, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and of course in Russia and China as well.

Certainly one of the reasons for the perception that democracy is in decline is the failure of the Arab Spring. Five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, there was hope that what was called the Arab Spring might translate into democratic gains in the one region that had been by-passed by the third wave of democratization two decades earlier. But as we know, the Arab Spring quickly turned into an Arab Winter.

Source: Western Paralysis and Retreat Threatens Democratic Progress | World Affairs Journal

Even in good old reliable America…..there seems to be a retreat of democracy also….I feel that it is only temporary…..but all the signs are there that it could be lost altogether….A risk to democracy is that wily politicians can exploit moments of anger or fear to implement plans that the public wouldn’t otherwise accept.

Worldwide….democracy is being subverted…….

The repeated indicators of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies bring to mind that Erdogan once said, “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”

With a statement like that, one can say that at least Turkish voters, including the many who have voted for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in multiple elections, were warned. But the phenomenon of authoritarian types rising within a democracy has been around for a long time.

Source: How Democracies Are Subverted – Consortiumnews

Democracy is a fragile thing……it takes very little for it to disappear….

On a final note……

Answered a lot of my questions……

12 thoughts on “Democracy In Retreat”

      1. Thanx chuq: It took me some time to find exactly what I wanted and this fit on so many levels that I couldn’t believe I found it. I thought your post was very good and apropos for the 4th. ~~dru~~

  4. Since 2000, Democracy around the world has been taking it up the ass like a CIA detainee being “served lunch”. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal

    I know they’re supposed to be “the Good Guys”, the inventors & patent holders of Democracy who are just trying to “protect their intellectual property”. However, NO regime that so easily and un-apologetically engages in torture, illegal/undeclared warfare, “extra-judicial” airborne assignations of unknown persons in “friendly nations”, mass surveillance of everyone with a pulse….Shit, basically everything America has done in the last 15 years….No nation that does that can seriously be considered to hold democratic values close to its heart. At best, it merely tolerates such values and ignores them whenever possible. If those are your “Good Guys”, then Democracy is in deeeeeeeep shit!

    And lets not forget the financial fuckwads, the 1%-ers who have so neutered & manipulated democractic governments through lobbying, trade deals, corruption and economic melt-downs…and who profit greatly from it, rather than get punished. Corporations are superseding the nation state, and will soon be rendering democracy as irrelevant as the First Darrin Stephens character. And not the one on Bewitched, but the Darrin Stephens character from the episode of The Flintstones! http://flintstones.wikia.com/wiki/Darrin_Stephens

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