There are not many democracies in the world, and they are suffering. Second The Economist of last February 15: «only 8 percent of the world population lives in a fully democratic system». Things are even worse if you consider that within that same 8% many democratic systems seem in danger or are not sufficiently defended by that “people” (demos) which should see democracy as the embodiment of its power. Just think of the level of conflict in the United States or, on a smaller scale, the Italian situation attempted, perhaps, by a form of government defined in an only apparently joking tone “Capocracy”. Before seeing why this happens, we can point out a small positive fact. Last Monday, 800 thousand Italians remained still to listen to a university-level lecture given on TV, in the early evening, by the professor Luciano Canfora su La7.
Such attention from a non-negligible number of Italians is in itself good news. Canfora discussed and analyzed what is happening to democratic systems, what may be the causes of their weakness. Democracies are staggering, it has been said, because we are experiencing years of epochal transition from the paper culture to the digital one with all the possibility of falsification that new technologies allow. Many, when questioned, admitted that they believed the images depicting Donald Trump in prison or, on the contrary, in the embrace of African Americans celebrating him to be authentic. The future queen of England herself has thought of retouching a family photo for purposes that have not yet been ascertained.
Uncertain democracy
by Carlo Bonini (editorial coordination), Ilvo Diamanti. Multimedia coordination Laura Pertici. Production Gedi Visual
Another possible danger factor for democracies lies in the enormous financial power of some large companies linked either to new technologies or to oil. Reliable data shows, for example, that the revenues of Apple, Saudi Aramco, Microsoft are greater than the Italian gross domestic product. Not only that, these companies are able to move masses of money using it at great speed against the long decision-making times of a democracy – even more so, we can add, in a perfect bicameral system like ours where every decision must be approved at the comma from two different assemblies.
This situation has led to a weakening of the democratic body par excellence, i.e. the Parliament. Deputies and senators are less motivated than they used to be also because they feel that an important part of their function has been lost. Also for historical reasons; in Europe, for example, the increased importance of the Union’s governing bodies has contributed. Just think of the budget constraints that weigh on member countries, forcing them to adopt certain behaviors or set amounts of repayment from excessive debt. Perhaps some of the voting citizens are not entirely aware of these mechanisms, but everyone realizes that many things have changed and that politics – that is, democracy – no longer works like it used to. The image of empty parliamentary chambers during important debates it contributed to spreading distrust in its functioning.
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Professor Canfora’s analysis continued with the consequences of disappearance of political parties. In post-war Italy the parties formed the backbone of a country that was looking for a new republican identity after the disaster of fascism. The parties have served to select and educate political personnel, avoiding the risk of seeing amateurs rise to important local or national responsibilities for which they have proven clearly unprepared. The collapse of ideologies did the rest by lowering the level of recruitment of new recruits for political activity. Those ideal horizons, utopian as they were, had given politics a breadth of horizon that no longer exists today.
Between May and July 2023, the “Open Society barometer” carried out a large survey questioning more than 30 thousand people in 30 countries on this topic. Only 6 out of 4 firmly defined democracy as the best possible system of government. A not encouraging majority, if you consider what the alternatives are. Even more so than this one disaffection it is particularly evident among young people, including Europe, as if the eighty years that have passed since the end of dictatorships and war have erased the very idea of the disasters from which the continent’s modern democracies were born.
The last factor taken into consideration, without claiming to have exhausted them all, is fear. Many are scared of great transformations and great migrations. Those who are scared ask for protection, the figure of a father-master, authoritative and strong, has once again become preferable for many to a democratic system where decisions are tempered, discussed, balanced.
The second part of the program which saw the professor as the protagonist took place on this passage Stefano Mancuso; founder of plant neurobiology, he has been fighting for years to safeguard the environment and the climate. His theses are told (with notable narrative skill) in the essay Fitopolis, the living city (The third). Within a few years, he said, the increase in global temperature it will force millions of people to leave portions of the planet that have become too hot and arid, that is, uninhabitable. Especially since the areas most affected by warming will also be the poorest. The theme of democracy and the climate find a clear point of convergence here which should push us to join forces to decisively combat the phenomenon. For example, Mancuso claims, with gigantic reforestation projects (millions of trees) like he has done, giving the world a virtuous example, the city of Seoul. However, will there be politicians far-sighted enough to understand that this is the way to defend the planet and democracy at the same time? One answer could come from the fact that in 2024 more than 4 billion people will vote, more than half the world’s population. True and fake, free and scheduled elections, which could still give a sign. We will only know what nature it will be after the fact.
#fragile #democracy #Republic
– 2024-03-17 15:54:23
