According to recent studies, the times do not seem to be good for democracy. To verify it, the interested reader can profitably access this link: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/02/09/a-new-low-for-global-democracy.
The first thing that draws attention is that, as a result of poor, chaotic, improvised and arbitrary management of the pandemic, civic liberties that threaten democratic culture have been curtailed throughout the world. Consequently, it is worth asking: Is democracy really in danger? And the answer would have to be that, indeed, to a large extent, we do see democracy threatened. However, in any case, it is convenient to clarify the affirmation, complementing it. We will leave the catastrophism, in good time, for the well-known prophets of calamity. For my part, trying to conduct myself responsibly and lucidly, I will end up suggesting an antidote to the threats that hang over democracy. I will do so by appealing to a triple proposal, formulated positively, from an ethical option and in the light of Moral Philosophy.
Democracy is, without a doubt, threatened and in danger. But, fortunately, it is in our hands to ensure that it does not end up being a mere memory of the past, a way of organizing unrecognizable coexistence outside the manuals of the History of Political Ideas.
Democracy is not just one more among the three possible ways of exercising power in society to organize coexistence. Together with the “government of the people, by the people and for the people”, to quote the lapidary definition of Abraham Lincoln in Getyssburg, there would be, on the one hand, the monarchy -the power exercised by a single, monkeys, in Greek- and the aristocracy. That is, the power exercised by a group of people, precisely the best –aristocraticin Greek- among the citizens.
Since the time of Aristotle we know that, along with those pure forms, it is possible to find their degraded versions. Such is the case, when the monarchy degenerates into tyranny; the aristocracybecomes oligarchy; and the democracy corrupts into what the Greek historian Polybius, as early as the second century BC, called oclocracia or rule by a mob –oklos in Greek-, uneducated, vulgar, incapable of thinking for herself and manipulable.
There is no chemically pure model, beyond the analysis of Political Philosophy. On the contrary, in every government there is inevitably a mixture of plans that, ultimately, is what provides viability and stability to the regimes. Although they are not called that, monarchical elements are always identified -and, frequently, tyrannical-, since someone, usually a single person, is usually placed at the head as head of state. The aristocratic aspect -or, in his case, oligarchic- is provided by those who make up the apparatus in charge of management, in its varied institutional cast: civil servants, legislators, political parties… And, as a necessary substratum of the institutional framework, there would be some type of democracy : Without sufficient support and minimal legitimacy, the political system would end up being unviable and unsustainable.
Democracy can only take root, develop and flourish in the right ecosystem: together with the possibility of removing leaders in a bloodless way, through the free election of representatives, the following is needed, at least: an effective division of powers; a free and competitive market; a rule of law, under the rule of law; and, above all, shared ethical values that support inalienable human rights in the open process of improving relationships between people.
What are, today, the data of the problem? What x-ray does democracy offer us? More or less, the panorama that is offered to us – from the strict democratic perspective; that is, leaving aside other geostrategic, health and economic considerations- might be outlined in the following terms: civic freedoms in decline; polarization, authoritarian dogmatism and intolerant fanaticism, which sees the adversary as the enemy; not remote possibility that the technocratic, controlling, statist and cyber totalitarian dystopia will emerge; generalization of confusion, mistrust in institutions and apathy, prelude to civic abstention; installation in broad layers of the citizenship of epistemological skepticism – where, to the first of the questions that, according to Kant, Philosophy should answer, is answered with a disenchanted “we know nothing for sure” – and of moral relativism, which seems to be willing to accept in practice the slogan that “there is no difference between good and evil”. These last features, probably, may be due to a paradox: assuming as true the fallacious ideology of the post-truth, which, logically, destroys itself by stating that “it is true that there are no truths”. However, that logical inconsistency is strengthened by the media and social networks through which incredible hoaxes are channeled from a theoretical perspective, and dangerous Fake Newsfrom a practical point of view.
What can we expect?, we would ask once more with Kant. And the short answer is this: Not good! But to open a door to hope, let’s complete the sentence: Nothing good can be expected of us, unless we take matters into our own hands decisively and decide to confront the threats that are endangering democracy!
The antidote may be in our hands, but it will require an even greater effort than that deployed to fight COVID-19. Developing the theoretical-practical vaccine in favor of democracy is not going to be an easy task. However, formulated from Moral Philosophy, these might be three essential axioms to guide the process of democratic regeneration: above all, strengthen rationality and critical thinking; secondly, betting on the centrality of the person and humanism as ends to which all socio-political and economic dynamics must be directed; and, thirdly, to recover the explicit option for Axiology and moral values. They constitute the points of reference towards which to advance, in search of orientation, towards the achievable utopia of equitable and sustainable economic development, together with fair social progress, capable of humanizing life and making the soul and spiritual flourish. , that is, the most intrinsically human.