More than half of the countries in the world (62 percent, or 97 countries) are now democratic (compared to only 26 percent in 1975), and more than half (57 percent) of the world's population now lives in some form of democracy, compared to 36 percent in 1975. The number of democracies continues to rise, from 90 in 2008 to 97 in 2018.
On average, democracies have higher levels of Gender Equality and Human Development and lower levels of corruption than non-democracies and hybrid regimes. Democracies are also generally better countries in which to do business than non-democracies.
The quality of the world's democracies and of the world’s high-performing democracies is eroding. The number of democratic re-transitions is on the increase. Despite some advances in political gender equality, serious efforts are still required to achieve political equality for men and women. In all regions of the world, and across all regime types, civic space is shrinking and. democratic backsliding takes place. This particular form of democratic erosion involving the gradual and intentional weakening of checks and balances and curtailment of civil liberties.
Democracy is ill and its promise needs revival. Indeed, the value, viability and future of democracy are more contested now than ever before in modern history, or at least since the 1930s. While the past four decades have seen a remarkable expansion of democracy throughout all regions of the world, recent years have been marked by declines in the fabric of both older and younger democracies. While the idea of democracy continues to mobilize people around the world, the practice of existing democracies has disappointed and disillusioned many citizens and democracy advocates. Democratic erosion is occurring in different settings and contexts. New democracies are often weak and fragile. Their governments and political representatives face the challenge of building and strengthening democratic institutions in resource-constrained environments. Older democracies are struggling to guarantee equitable and sustainable economic and social development. The share of high-quality democracies is decreasing and many of them are confronted with populist challengers, which combine exclusionary claims with a disregard for democratic principles. Both old and young democracies are suffering from a shrinking civic space, with declines in civil liberties, clampdowns on civil society, and restrictions on freedom of expression.
Modern democratic backsliding occurs from within the democratic system: through legislative and constitutional reforms and policy decisions by democratically elected majorities. The gradual hollowing-out of the non-electoral pillars in backsliding democracies ultimately damages democracy's core principles of popular control and political equality. Democratic backsliding coincides with the rise of populist politicians and movements that appeal to growing numbers of voters, most notably in Europe but also in the Americas, and Asia and the Pacific, although forms vary according to cultural and regional contexts.
The rise of populist politics is linked to a variety of context-specific factors, but some common drivers include a disenchantment with traditional political actors; the perceived inability of current political systems to address core societal and economic problems; and a clash between expectations of what democracy should provide and what it actually delivers. A feature of populist rhetoric and practice is disrespect for the accountability of institutions that check government, protect political pluralism and constitute what democracy is.
One of the main findings of this report is that democracy has not always produced the sustainable and prosperous outcomes that many expected. A number of democratically elected governments have failed to substantially reduce corruption, advance gender equality, reduce social, political and economic inequalities or produce employment and economic growth. Political representation of women has seen regression.
The large majority (81 percent) of the world's 97 democracies have proven democratically resilient, having maintained their democratic status uninterruptedly since 1975 or when they transitioned to democracy. The aspect of democracy that matters most for Human Development is the Absence of Corruption. The less corrupt a country is, the more likely it is to have high levels of Human Development and vice versa.
Citizens are disenchanted with traditional political parties perceived lack of capacity to address societal and economic problems.
A transformation of civic space has been observed in recent years, brought about by the use of information and communications technologies and the transformation of political parties, with a shift towards individualization of civic engagement beyond formal organizational structures, to citizen mobilization and networking into looser and more fluid forms of interactions, often facilitated by social media.
Here are the main points that Chomsky makes regarding the current state of democracy.
Noam begins his lecture about the current state of Democracy with a personal reflection, in 1939, when he was 12 years old, was the year that Barcelona fell to the fascist forces of Franko. That year the fascism seemed unstoppable all over Europe. Chomsky draws parallels between that time and today when we witness the rise of ultra-nationalistic, reactionary movements and leaders. In the US it is Steve Bannon, in the Middle East Chomsky sees alliances between extreme reactionary states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Israel (I question the claim that Israel is an extreme reactionary state!). In Latin America, similar political changes are taking place. In Brazil the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ultranationalist, in Europe right-wing, the nationalistic party are rising as well. There is a counter development. Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister of Greece and Bernie Sanders in the US have urged the formation of Progressive International political force to counter the rise of right-wing international.
Chomsky notes that at the level of states the balance between progressive and reactionary forces, the balance is not in favour of the progressive forces. But at the level of people, we can protect and strengthen functional democracy. We need to use the opportunities Democracies provide to support Activism. Activism has led to significant progress in the past and may save us in the future. Chomsky makes a point about how difficult it is to maintain and to institute Democracy and that there are powerful forces that have always opposed Democracy. There is some positive development in the public political arena. The sunrise movement and the progressive political figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senator Ed Markey put the New Green Deal on the country's political agenda and that is in Chomsky's view a significant achievement. Chomsky considers functional Democracy essential in the battle to prevent nuclear conflict and prevent climate change calamity. We need strong democracies to counter the twin very serious threats, we need to mount a large public pressure to counter the powerful state and private institutions.
Chomsky restates the grave dangers of nuclear conflict and of climate change. He reminds us that the ABM and INF (Anti-ballistic missile and intermediate nuclear forces) treaties have been both cancelled. And that global warming continues to accelerate. Our inaction on the present climate crisis is due to powerful institutional pressures and only large public pressure can overcome those.
A Note:
I think that big businesses are coming to realize that addressing climate change is important, both for the short term, to win public support for their business and for the long term because of the economic cost of climate change. Chomsky does not enlarge how to strengthen our Democracies; he advocates for strong activism. Perhaps the most important point of his presentation is that we need good and functioning democracies to address effectively the Nuclear and climate change threats. This is why weakened democracies may become an existential threat as well.
Main Points
More than half of the countries in the world (62 percent, or 97 countries) are now democratic.
Democracies have higher levels of Gender Equality and Human Development and lower levels of corruption than non-democracies and hybrid regimes. Democracies are also generally better countries in which to do business than non-democracies. The large majority (81 percent) of the world's 97 democracies have proven democratically resilient.
The quality of the world's democracies including the high-performing democracies is eroding. Democracy is ill and its promise needs revival. The practice of existing democracies has disappointed and disillusioned many citizens and democracy advocates.
Both old and young democracies are suffering from a shrinking civic space, declines in civil liberties, clampdowns on civil society, and restrictions on freedom of expression. A transformation of civic space has been observed in recent years, brought about by the use of information and communications technologies and the transformation of political parties.
New democracies are often weak and fragile. Their governments and political representatives face the challenge of building and strengthening democratic institutions in resource-constrained environments. Older democracies are struggling to guarantee equitable and sustainable economic and social development. Democracies have not always produced the sustainable and prosperous outcomes that many expected.
Modern democratic backsliding occurs from within the democratic system: through legislative and constitutional reforms and policy decisions by democratically elected majorities. Democratic backsliding coincides with the rise of populist politicians and movements that appeal to growing numbers of voters, most notably in Europe but also in the Americas, and Asia and the Pacific.
The rise of populist politics is linked to disenchantment with traditional political actors; the perceived inability of current political systems to address core societal and economic problems; and a clash between expectations of what democracy should provide and what it actually delivers. We are witnessing the rise of ultra-nationalistic, reactionary movements and leaders. In the US it is Steve Bannon, in the Middle East Chomsky sees alliances between extreme reactionary states, in Latin America similar political changes are taking place. In Brazil, the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ultranationalist, in Europe right-wing, nationalistic party is rising as well.
The balance between progressive and reactionary forces at the level of the state is not in favour of the progressive forces. But at the level of people, we can protect and strengthen functional democracy. Activism has led to significant progress in the past and may save us in the future. There is some positive development in the US public political arena. The sunrise movement and the progressive political figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and senator Ed Markey put the New Green Deal on the country’s political agenda.
Functional Democracy is essential in the battle to prevent nuclear conflict and prevent climate change calamity. We need strong democracies to counter the twin very serious threats, we need to mount a large public pressure to counter the powerful state and private institutions.