Erosion of Democracy: Democracy -, #1

By J. Dhopte

This book is a first part of the series - DEMOCRACY, a series of three books. Democracy during the last decade has suffered a dramatic decline.The constitutional democracies are being overthrown and there is an increase in the regimes that retain the formal institutional trappings while flouting the norms and values on which constitutional democracies are based.The forces of neo- liberalism are gaining ascendency in the world and the democratic public spheres are confronting a growing crisis.Politics has become an extension of war. The state supported corporate power seeks to reporoduce and reward an orientation to the world innfused with authoritarian ideas, pracices and principles. Uncivil behaviour by elites and pathological mass communication reinforces each other. There is a public ripe to be polarized and exploited by demagogues and the media manipulators. Thus, any response must involve ordinary citizens, but are they upto the task? If democracy is to have a future, all the various pedagogical apparatuses available must be transformed to support - critical thinking and a public culture capable of exerting a formative educational influence in favour of democratic freedom, justic, equality and fraternity. The author argues that the solutions cannot be found only by strengthening the constitutional institutions, the democracy must also seek to reinvigorate its democratic aspirations. Democracy must be saved and protected to acheive security, stability and prosperity for the entire world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Dhopte
• Release date: Mar 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215628492

J. Dhopte

The author J. Dhopte graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur (India) with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He got a Diploma in Marine Engineering and a Master’s in Financial Management also. He started his career in the Merchant Navy, working on the ships. He worked in the Merchant Navy traveling around the world for 10 years. He worked as a Chief Engineer on ships, Chief Engineer in a hotel, and Maintenance Manager in a manufacturing industry.  Currently, he is working as a Professor in Nasik, India. He started writing in March 2020, when the Government ordered a nationwide. Since then, he has written ten books which are going to be published this year.The author J. Dhopte graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur (India) with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He got a Diploma in Marine Engineering and a Master’s in Financial Management also. He started his career in the Merchant Navy, working on the ships. He worked in the Merchant Navy traveling around the world for 10 years. He worked as a Chief Engineer on ships, Chief Engineer in a hotel, and Maintenance Manager in a manufacturing industry.  Currently, he is working as a Professor in Nasik, India. He started writing in March 2020, when the Government ordered a nationwide. Since then, he has written ten books which are going to be published this year.

Book preview

EROSION

OF

DEMOCRACY

Also, by J. Dhopte

Corporatocracy Not Democracy 

People and Democracy 

Non-attachment – A key to Happiness 

Are We Really Free? 

Affirmative Action – A Compensation and Social Justice

Insightful Constitution 

Education in Crisis 

The Unsung Nationalist 

Ambedkar as a Nation- builder 

EROSION OF DEMOCRACY

HOW TO SAVE A DYING DEMOCRACY?

J. Dhopte

A democratic form of Government presupposes a democratic form of a society; the formal framework of democracy is of no value and would indeed be a misfit if there was no social democracy. It does unmistakably involve two things. The first is an attitude of mind, and attitude of respect and equality towards their fellows. The second is a social organization free from rigid social barriers. Democracy is incompatible and inconsistent with isolation and exclusiveness resulting in the distinction between the privileged and the unprivileged. We must resolve to see that whatever we do, we do not help the enemies of democracy to uproot the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. It follows that we must strive along with other democratic countries to maintain the basis of democratic civilization. If democracy lives, we are sure to reap the benefit of it. If democracy dies, it will be our doom.

PREFACE

Our broken political system, fueled by big money, has created an environment in which the vast majority of ordinary citizens no longer have a seat at the table. Corporations and billionaires rely on plundering the natural world. The fusion of the corporation and the state, not free-market capitalism, is the true political economy now. Nations like  China  and  Russia  are turning out to be domestic and international aggressors. They violate human rights with impunity because they control global political systems that could otherwise prosecute them. A responsible democracy exhibits comprehensive respect for accountability from its citizens. But society has all but relegated the pursuit of the collective interest to the world and has grown to accept self-interest as the only force that really matters in the hard-nosed world of making a living, paying the bills, and running a political machine.

This book diagnoses the contemporary political situation and presents a plan for reinventing democracy for the twenty-first century. Even though it is not the best, democracy is still better than any alternative form of government. The author requests that readers better understand the current situation and protect democracy. Defeating authoritarianism is going to take all of us. Everyone has a role to play. We have to change the course and fix this. We cannot allow this inaction to continue. We cannot hand the future of our planet over to algorithms that distort the truth and allow lies to spread faster than real journalism. We have stopped countless repressive policies in the past. Never forget that resistance, sustained organizing, and protest work. Now we need to draw on our long history of successful protests to protect human rights and defeat efforts to restrict civil and human rights.

We all must try to build towards a thriving democracy for the next generation, where elections are free, fair, and trusted; checks and balances prevent the government from tyrannical overreach; and facts and honest disagreement, not disinformation, shape public opinion. We have to turn the current fake, half democracy around by eliminating the systematic flaws that define most democracy in the world. Together, we can save democracy only by developing it ourselves and shaping it ourselves!

CONTENTS -

CHAPTER 1. DEMOCRATIC Erosion

Democracy under Siege

The long arm of Covid-19

Doubts About Democracy

Chapter 2. Democracy Health Check

Chapter 3: The History of Democracy

Early Democracy

Modern Democracy

THE 1848

Waves of Democracy

CHAPTER 4. DEMOCRACY is Losing

Democracy in Crisis

Death of Democracy

This is how democracies die.

The Weight of Geopolitics

Democracy, Autocracy, and Growth

Is technology killing Democracy?

The Weakening of Media Integrity

CHAPTER5. DEMOCRACY Is Not Dying

Idealizing the Past

Democratic and Authoritarian Systems

Elite Capture

The Resilience of Democracy

Explosion of Civic Activism

Democratic Innovations

CHAPTER 6. HOW TO SAVE Democracy?

What is Democracy?

Ambedkar’s Views on Democracy

The Power of the Powerless

How to Save Democracy?

Chapter 1

DEMOCRATIC EROSION

Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men.

DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE

Democratic erosion is defined as a decline in democratic quality manifested by a statistically significant decline in at least one aspect of democracy. Democratic backsliding, defined as the sustained and deliberate subversion of basic democratic tenets by political actors and governments, is on the verge of becoming a new type of pandemic. In the largest and wealthiest non-Western countries, there is an increasing incidence of - democratic breakdowns, democratic backsliding or stagnation and poor performance of new democracies according to various measures of good governance and rule of law.  The absolute number of democracies has been decreasing since 2015. The number of democratically regressive countries has never been greater than in the last decade. In fact, 70% of the world's population now lives in either non-democratic regimes or democratically regressive countries. Only 9 % of the world's population lives in high-performing democracies. More democracies than ever before are experiencing democratic erosion. More than a quarter of the world's population now lives in democracies which are in decline. They account for more than two-thirds of the world's population, along with those living in outright non-democratic regimes. Fully fledged authoritarian regimes are also growing in number, and their leaders are acting ever more brazenly. These regimes are buoyed by a lack of sufficient geopolitical pressure and support from other autocratic powers. Some of them thrive on the narrative that authoritarian governance is more effective for economic prosperity and pandemic management. Citizens of democracies are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their institutions, and they are increasingly drawn to alternative, even autocratic, regime forms.

Electoral integrity is increasingly being questioned, often without evidence, even in established democracies. The former US President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations during the 2020 US presidential election have had spillover effects, including in Brazil, Mexico, Myanmar, and Peru, among others. The uneven global distribution of covid -19 vaccines, as well as anti-vaccine normalizing restrictions on basic freedoms. Incumbent leaders are utilizing more and more violence to silence critics and settle disputes, while embattled activists—who lack effective international support—are frequently subjected to lengthy prison terms, torture, or even murder. The enemies of freedom have pushed the false narrative that democracy is in decline because it is incapable of addressing people’s needs.

Over the past few years, oppressive and frequently violent authoritarian forces have repeatedly tilted the balance of power in their favour, taking advantage of both the strengths of nondemocratic systems and the weaknesses of ailing democracies. There have been accusations that democracy is inherently inferior because of the continued deterioration. This viewpoint is supported by official commentators from China and Russia who want to increase their global influence without being held accountable for wrongdoings as well as antidemocratic actors who see a chance to consolidate control within democracies. Both are promoting and accelerating the disintegration of democracy. Democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favour of tyranny. The countries experiencing deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded since the negative trend began in 2006. The long democratic recession is deepening. The impact of the long-term democratic decline has become increasingly global in nature, broad enough to be felt by those living under the brutal dictatorships as well as by citizens of long-standing democracies. Nearly 75 % of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration in the last 10 years.

The long arm of Covid-19

The proliferation of covid-19, which began in early 2020, has made the decline of freedom more pronounced. Governments in all democracies have utilized excessive monitoring, discriminatory limits on rights to movement and assembly, and arbitrary or violent enforcement of such restrictions by law enforcement and non-state actors. The communication infrastructures of many nations were inundated by waves of false and misleading information, some of which were created on purpose by political leaders and endangered lives. Ultimately, the changes precipitated by the pandemic left many societies—with varied regime types, income levels, and demographics—in worse political condition, with more pronounced racial, ethnic, and gender inequalities, and vulnerable to long-term effects. Marginalized populations are bearing the brunt of both the virus and its economic impact, which has exacerbated income inequality among other disparities.

The world's best-performing nations have seen a decline in freedom for several years. The percentage of non-free nations is at its highest point in the previous 15 years. Less than 20 percent of the world's population now resides in free countries, the smallest percentage since 1995, as a result of India's descent to partly free. In already oppressive situations, repression exacerbates the harm done to their institutions and communities, making it harder for any future government to satisfy the public's expectations for freedom and prosperity. The erroneous narrative that democracy is failing because it can't meet people's wants has been spread by those who oppose freedom. In actuality, democracy is deteriorating because its most notable representatives are not doing enough to safeguard it.

Doubts about Democracy

Because of authoritarian weakness, many nations momentarily benefited from pluralism by default, but they never genuinely achieved democracy. Since their governments were mistakenly categorized as democratic in the first place, the consolidation of authoritarianism that has taken place in many of them should not be interpreted as a sign of democratic collapse. Between 1975 and 1985, democracy started to advance significantly over the world. In the years 1985 to 1995, it then made astonishing progress. Then, its advancement slowed, and only moderate

Reviews for Erosion of Democracy

[Akshata Ghumare · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

J. Dhopte has written on this subject with great effort and makes a compelling case for the promotion of democracy

[Shivangi Singh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book provides an insightful analysis of the dynamic of populist authoritarianism and the future of democracy

[Swayam Gaikwad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing piece of information on the use of media to promote authoritarianism

[shweta kathe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

J. Dhopte had written a cool headed analysis of a subject with lucidity and provocativeness.