Democracy in decline worldwide, new report says
Democracy in decline worldwide, new report says
Orbán, Trump and Erdoğan contribute to continuing downturn around the globe.
This is sadly so obvious to see, that you don't need a report to know that.
Romania and Slovakia — are becoming the center of democratic growth in Europe
The report is even already way off regarding Slovakia, who just elected an authoritarian with sympathies towards Russia.
Romania is a bit shaky too, they have very little trust in the democratic government, and could probably easily be swayed by a populist who says what they want to hear.It doesn't mention USA, Brazil, Argentina that are all becoming more shaky too, instead of stabilizing.
It also doesn't mention China, that also became more authoritarian, with Xi grabbing even more power much like Putin.Being young in the 70's, I never in my worst nightmares imagined things would ever become this bad.
When the Berlin Wall was broken, I never imagined it could become this bad. It's kind of worse than before the wall was broken, because USA alone is such a huge influence, and Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???
two reasons:
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in 2010 they got to gerrymander the fuck out of districts and thus got a whole bunch of safe seats where even total wackos can win primaries and then go on to safely win the general
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the republican's whole ideology and support base is crumbling away and it's basically unstoppable at this point. old racists who fondly remember jim crow are all retired and young people are leaving christianaity at a consistent rate of around 1%/year. their economic policies are totally out of whack with what the bottom 90% need or want and no one believes tax cuts on the rich will benefit anyone but the rich. their only hope is overthrowing the government and installing a dictator and everyone knows it
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Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason???
Conservatives have always been authoritarian. The difference between now and before is that decades ago, the political parties were aligned differently with some Southern conservatives being Democrats and some Northern progressives being Republicans, so the overall party platforms were more moderate. Also, conservatives back then couldn't admit to their desires to go full-on "papers, please" because the Soviet Union existed as a geopolitical enemy that they needed to maintain ideological distance from. (In contrast, they're happy to be buddy-buddy with fascist Russia, since it's right-wing authoritarian instead of left-wing authoritarian.)
TL;DR: Because coalitions and geopolitics have realigned, conservatives can express the true agenda they've always had in a way they couldn't before.
Republican have gone completely nuts for Authoritarianism for some reason
I feel like this is a power grab. With everyone online and interconnected, it's a lot easier to see where the real problems are. Our collective blame shifts more and more to the top and it's becoming a lot harder to defend the actions of the rich.
I feel like that's a source for all of this, not just the USA. They know the party is over, but they'll fight like hell to keep it going.
The article is about direction, not position.
The report is even already way off regarding Slovakia, who just elected an authoritarian with sympathies towards Russia. Romania is a bit shaky too, they have very little trust in the democratic government, and could probably easily be swayed by a populist who says what they want to hear.
The article uses the report to show that Slovakia and Romania have improved relative to their prior measurement. It is silent on their positions relative to other democracies.
Slovakia and Romania have improved relative to their prior measurement.
Slovakia improved how? From potentially electing a Russia friendly authoritarian to actually having elected one is progress?
As for Slovakia, not all hope is lost.
The party that was elected has been ruling for ages, so they're very entrenched especially for older voters.
There is a new-ish party (PS) that gained a lot of momentum in this election, and I have even better hopes for them in the next election.
Democracy is the worst form of governance, apart from all others
It's only the morning where I am, but I think I've read the dumbest thing I'm going to read all day.
Next time try not sleeping through your history class champ? That’s a famous historic Churchill quote.
Not unless you re-read your comment after you finally finish waking up
I seriously doubt it
Yup, it matches my observations as well.
What's your definition of democracy baby?
What do you consider kleptocracy ?
Don't you know I vote until it hurts me baby
Don't you think it's time you had Marx with me?
What song is that from?
I Want Your Sex- George Michael
Marx would be the opposite of democracy.
Well, you convinced me. Guess I’ll read Marx to find out why.
I strongly encourage ACTUALLY reading Marx and not just the facebook post equivalents that various influencers love to spout.
But, at a very high level: Marxism is largely built around communism (well, the other way around, but just roll with it). Which does have implications for governing and decision making, but is largely a socioeconomic system. So the better "opposite" would be Capitalism. Although, even that is a pretty reductive approach and is arguably wrong.
That said: Communism requires some form of centralized planning. And while there is nothing that says that can't come from a true Democracy, it tends to favor republics which may or may not use democracy to select. The US, as the chuds so often like to exclaim, is a Democratic Republic (sort of) in that we use Democracy-ish to select our representatives.
No, he's into super-democracy. Democratize everything, including ownership and the workplace.
Lenin was the one who came up with the idea to centralize everything, Marxist-Leninists mistake the proletariat as better, when the truth is it's all structural.
Marx differentiated two groups in different social classes and drew a straight comparison from feudal lords to the ownership class, and said "their interests are different from the rest of ours, and capitalism benefits them at our expense - including by giving them an unfair advantage in the political process"
Lenin took that to mean "the bourgeoisie are unlike the proletariat, they are uniquely evil". Assuming that by overthrowing the nobility and oligarchs they could build the perfect state, he did the dumbest thing possible. He built the "ideal" system for someone who hadn't studied sociology...a single, central view from on high.
In theory, that's the ideal way to manage resources - you can see where there's a surplus and where there's a need, and respond appropriately.
In practice, he created a system that incentivizes and normalizes lying until you're caught in the same way that a corporation incentives pushing morality and legality to the point you get backlash... It selects for the worst people to rise to the top
Add in the propaganda the US pushes about China and Russia being Communist (they're both absolutely authoritarian but a form of capitalism by any informed definition), and you get a bunch of people who have no idea what they're talking about (tankies) spreading a highly flawed conception of communism, or even just authoritarianism with some Marxist terms painted on
You mean as opposed to the free and fair two party capitalist democracy where Americans have to choose between two old men they don't like?
Funny that Politico are the ones reporting on this.. given the fact that they're owend by Axel Springer
At least it's not Murdoch - but that's a very low bar
US is about to fall into a semi-fascist state next year, so it's gonna get way worse
Really... hadn't noticed.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“In Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States, just to name the most familiar examples, the erosion of democratic norms has been engineered by leaders claiming to speak in the name of, and with the authority of, the people,” the new report warned.
IDEA’s report bases its analysis on 173 countries and takes into account 17 metrics ranging from civil liberties to judicial independence to credible elections to the rule of law, using the most recent figures from 2022.
EU countries Hungary and Poland are still the “most notable examples illustrating the bloc’s limited ability to exert more direct influence over the (non-)democratic trajectory of its member states,” the report said.
Poland — which is set for a change of political direction after election results earlier this month that saw the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party defeated — might now be on a more positive trajectory.
In contrast to Hungary and Poland’s recent performance, other Central and Eastern European countries — such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia — are becoming the center of democratic growth in Europe due to notable five-year improvements, the report said.
According to the report: “Ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been implicated in schemes to shut down critical media and purchase positive coverage by using public funds through the Ministry of Finance.”
The original article contains 692 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
That's not about just O, T and E etc really.
It's about the average Westerner just loving to blabber about realpolitik and subjective interests on the subject of enabling richer and stronger cannibals against poorer and weaker humans.
And also about democratic countries having no immunity against foreign states buying their politicians and officials and the general population not really caring.
Jailing for life a few people who've been paid by Qatar, Azerbaijan, Russia, Israel etc would do wonders as an example to the rest.
Bombing their infrastructures when they start wars would also be nice. Most don't have WMD. Not for the realpolitikers, of course, that would have negative strategic and economical effect, but if your goal is preserving democracy and civilization, then there are plenty of places to be bombed right now without dancing all the quadrilles.
Wtf did I just read?
I'm pretty sure they want America to bomb Russia.
Which specific part is hard for you to understand? I've made a few shortcuts.
Well, of course it is. You all blatantly threw out human rights because you were afraid after 9/11 and because of covid. 🤦
9/11, yes, but what human rights did we lose from covid? Having to wear a mask for a while? Or being heavily encouraged to get a vaccine? ...
I was in grade school during 9/11. What rights did you lose out on because of covid?