#BTColumn – Democracy endangered

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Dr. Peter Laurie

We in CARICOM are fortunate when it comes to democracy. If you take the average of four reputable international indices of political freedoms and civil liberties, our countries rank near the top, with Barbados leading. The only countries in Latin America similarly ranked are Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

But we shouldn’t take democracy for granted. Let’s not forget what Burnham did in Guyana, and Gairy, followed by Coard, did in Grenada. Democracy is fragile.

It’s not just we in the Caribbean who take democracy for granted. Almost everyone does, deluding themselves that
‘it can’t happen here’.

Don’t believe me? Well, just ask the Americans.

I wrote in a column a year ago that Trumpism was the last gasp of white supremacy and would be defeated once he lost the election. What I underestimated was the extent to which the virus of Trumpism had infected the Republican Party.

Nor had I foreseen the Trumpist invasion of the Capitol
on January 6th. 53 per cent of Republicans believe that Trump won the 2020 election.

Trump not only coaxed white supremacists, a small vicious minority, out into the open, he also tapped into the ‘identity’ insecurities of wider white America, insecurities that may border at times on racism.

Let me explain.

Descendants of Europeans everywhere are generally loath to acknowledge a nasty fact of history: Christian Europe’s pillage of Africa, Asia and the Americas. This included wars of conquest, genocide, enslavement, and indenture, along with the damage and distortion inflicted by the colonial empires upon the subject peoples and their countries.

As long as this denial exists, any talk of affirming the rights and freedoms of people of colour, or of setting the historical record straight, or of reparatory justice is perceived as an existential threat to ‘white identity.’ Several Southern States now seek to legislate against the teaching of historically accurate accounts of slavery and its consequences.

Coupled with this ‘white identity’ anxiety, is the byproduct of a worldwide crisis of capitalism today: an unprecedented level of economic and social inequality. As a result, in many societies, including the US, those at the bottom of a society often feel not only left behind and neglected, but even scorned by those who have climbed up the social and economic ladder.

Unsurprisingly, they either become resentful and embrace violence (and yes, it’s happening here courtesy of our archaic educational system that, whatever its original purpose, simply reinforces inequality by skimming the cream off the top and letting the rest sink to the dark depths) or they become easy prey to a fascist demagogue who tells them he can fix all their problems, which stem from ‘foreigners’ and ‘others’ who don’t look, live, love, or pray like them, i.e. scapegoating, as European elites did for centuries in their massacres of Jews living among them. Hard to believe, I know, but American democracy is in danger.

Democracy is not just fragile, it’s hard to define.

While democracy is a universal human achievement and aspiration, based on principles such as free and fair elections, freedom of expression and assembly, the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, and the protection of fundamental human rights, there is no single universally applicable model. It comes in multiple forms that are continuously evolving, So no existing democracy is without flaws, and there’s no final state of democracy. It’s always a work in progress, vulnerable and perishable.

So why is democracy especially endangered today?

Apart from the dozens of long-standing dictatorships, democracy is receding in the face of the rise of rightwing populist, ultra-nationalist and racist movements across the world stemming largely from the same crisis of capitalism.

In Eastern Europe, countries like Hungary and Poland are now ruled by autocrats with scant respect for the rule of law. In Western Europe, rightwing populist movements are gaining ground electorally.

In India, Narendra Modi’s Hindu ethno-nationalism is posing threats to the world’s largest democracy. And we have seen the dangers of the populist autocratic impulses of Netanyahu in Israel, and Bolsonaro in Brazil, to mention just two once-thriving democracies.

There is also the general decline of the social democratic movement that served in the post-war period as a bulwark of democracy against the authoritarian tendencies of communism and fascism by taking advantage of capitalism’s upsides while addressing its downsides.

They regulated markets and implemented social policies that insulated citizens from those markets’ most destabilising and destructive consequences.

Today, social democracy across the globe, with the exception of the Nordic countries and CARICOM, is now
in disarray. Witness the suicidal impulses of the British Labour Party.

A more modern and insidious technical threat to democracy today stems ironically from the digital revolution. This ongoing technological transformation fuelled by big data, along with Artificial Intelligence, predictive algorithms, risk modelling, biometrics, and the Internet of Things, holds out great promise for improving the quality of life for people everywhere.

At the same time, these advances can also pose a threat to democracy by facilitating greater control and power by authoritarian governments and predatory corporations over citizens. For example, the creation and issuance of national digital identities for citizens designed to deliver highly personalised services should be accompanied by transparent protocols that guarantee protection of citizens’ personal identifiable information from political and corporate influence or manipulation.

It is vital in a democracy that the harvesting and harnessing of data is brought under the control and used for the benefit of all citizens and not monopolised by the few for profit or power. The widespread use of social media generating massive amounts of disinformation also poses a threat to a fact-based civil discussion that’s a critical element of democracy.

In order that we in the Caribbean don’t wake up one day to find that democracy has slipped away from us while we were sleeping, it might be timely to establish an independent institute for democratic governance whose main purpose would be to support the strengthening and safeguarding of democratic political institutions and processes at all levels.

Such an institute would not only conduct research on democratic systems but would also provide practical advice and training on issues such as electoral system reforms, campaign finance regulation, the institutional development of political parties, constitutional arrangements for the separation of powers, anti-corruption and transparency measures, and, most important, strategies for greater ongoing participation of civil society organisations in governance.

In addition to the general threats to democracy outlined above, we in the Caribbean face peculiar challenges.

These include:

(a) The inherent vulnerability of very small democracies to external threats and pressures of all kinds that can destabilise societies;

(b) Poverty and social inequality leading to frustration, apathy and disillusionment with politics;

(c) Illicit trafficking in drugs, people, and arms along with international organised crime, money laundering, and corruption;

(d) High levels of domestic crime and violence;

(e) Ethnic conflict and economic disparities, real or perceived, between ethnic groups leading to lack of trust in elections and governments;

(f) Electoral systems that need strengthening and improving so that citizens perceive them as fair, free and reliable;

(g) Weakness and unreliability of public administration systems along with perceived corruption in the public and private sectors;

(h) The lack of ongoing citizen participation in governance along with relatively weak civil societies, including media and NGO communities;

(i) The need to strengthen the institutional capacity of political parties;

(j) The need for greater participation and enjoyment of functional equality by women in the political process;

(k) The need to strengthen and modernise the trade union movement in view of the historic role played by labour in the struggle for democracy and independence in Caribbean societies;

(l) Persistent restrictive economic and social legacies
of colonialism.

Barbados would be an ideal site for hosting such an institute for several reasons that include:

(a) a long-standing tradition of political stability and good governance;

(b) a functioning two-party system since 1955, with the two established parties alternating regularly in office;

(c) an independent electoral system that international observers have reported as being free and fair and free of violence;

(d) A longstanding functioning social partnership between labour, employers and government that promotes stability and consensus;

(e) Solid infrastructure both physical, digital, and social;

(f) An excellent educational infrastructure including the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies;

(g) A long-standing reputation internationally for the promotion of human rights.

Having said all that, I suspect that few people in Barbados would have much interest in this matter at this time because of the pandemic and its economic fallout. We simply have too many other issues and priorities to preoccupy us.

Pity, though.

Dr. Peter Laurie is a retired permanent secretary and head of the Foreign Service who once served as Barbados’ Ambassador to the United States.