{"id":122636,"date":"2021-07-31T18:29:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T12:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=122636"},"modified":"2021-07-31T18:29:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T12:59:08","slug":"how-does-a-democracy-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-does-a-democracy-die\/","title":{"rendered":"How does a democracy die?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/elected-governments-death-of-democracy-civil-unrest-7431013\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indian Express<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance:<\/strong> This article highlights few examples that can turn a country in a failed democracy.<\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democracies die when democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale, and joblessness. In such a scenario, political leaders are prone to blindness and incompetence, they pay minor regard towards the promise of a dignified life for every citizen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global surveys are everywhere reporting dipping confidence in democracy and marked jumps in citizens\u2019 frustrations with government corruption and incompetence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most worrying are the survey findings for India, which is fast developing a reputation as the world\u2019s largest failing democracy.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its<\/span><b> Democracy Report 2020, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sweden\u2019s V-Dem Institute noted that <\/span><b>India \u201chas almost lost its status as a democracy\u201d.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It ranked India below Sierra Leone, Guatemala, and Hungary<\/span><b>.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Understanding Democracy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democracy is much more than pressing a button or marking a box on a ballot paper. It is a whole way of life and involves<\/span><b> freedom from hunger, humiliation, and violence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democracy is saying <\/span><b>no to every form of human and non-human indignity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a healthy democracy, citizens are not forced to travel in buses and trains like livestock, wade through dirty water from overrunning sewers or breathe poisonous air.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Democracy is <\/span><b>public and private respect for different ways of living<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It is a willingness to admit that impermanence renders all life vulnerable, that in the end nobody is invincible, and that <\/span><b>ordinary lives are never ordinary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Political scientists have often pointed out that democracies fade in two connected ways. Some have suffered sudden death. But death by cuts is more common.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Two Ways in which Democracy dies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Military Coup:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Democide or military coup is usually a slow-motion and messy process. Wild rumours and talk of conspiracies flourish. Street protests and outbreaks of uncontrolled violence happen. Fears of civil unrest spread.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The armed forces take control. The emergency rule is declared, but things eventually come to a boil.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the government weakens, the army moves from its barracks onto the streets to quell unrest and take control. Democracy is finally buried in a grave it slowly dug for itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the past generation, around three-quarters of democracies met their end in these ways. These include military coups against the elected governments of <\/span><b>Egypt (2013), Thailand (2014), Myanmar, and Tunisia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><b>2021<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Destruction by Social Emergencies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The judiciary becomes vulnerable to cynicism, political meddling, and state capture. <\/span>Massive imbalances of wealth, chronic violence, famine, etc. destroy people\u2019s dignity<b>.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The victims stop believing themselves worthy of rights, or capable as citizens of fighting for their own entitlements, or for the rights of others.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This <\/span><b>social indignity undermines citizens\u2019 capacity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to take an active interest in public affairs and to check and humble the powerful.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citizens are forced to put up with state and corporate restrictions on basic public freedoms.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This makes them used to big money, surveillance, baton charges, preventive detentions, and police killings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the scandal doesn\u2019t end there.<\/span><b> When millions of citizens are daily victimized by social indignities, the powerful are granted a license to rule arbitrarily<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When this happens, <\/span><b>demagoguery <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">comes into season. It refers to political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The leaders can even convince people that they can turn lead into gold. They make <\/span><b>careless, foolish, and incompetent decisions that reinforce social inequities.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They license Big industry and government players to decide things, which in turn breeds corruption.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Finally, in the absence of redistributive public welfare policies that guarantee sufficient food, shelter, security, education, and health care <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the downtrodden; democracy morphs into a mere fa\u00e7ade.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Indian Express\u00a0 Relevance: This article highlights few examples that can turn a country in a failed democracy. Synopsis: Democracies die when democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale, and joblessness. In such a scenario, political leaders are prone to blindness and incompetence, they pay&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-does-a-democracy-die\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How does a democracy die?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-122636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704870448},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}