John P.A. Ioannidis and Michaela C. Schippers have a useful piece published in Tablet about the damage done to democracies by the coronavirus debacle. It is titled Saving Democracy From the Pandemic.
COVID-19 has killed millions and threatened the prospects of democracy for billions more. Since early 2020, the world has witnessed a marked expansion of governmental decision-making regarding health. Lockdowns and curfews were instated in many countries, and many freedoms were taken away under the justification of a major health threat. Health authorities and politicians alluding to or exploiting health authorities acquired extraordinary power to regulate society at large, including the application of mandates...
Several governments responded to the lethal pandemic by undermining the very systems that were in place to ensure accountability and to protect public health and well-being. No single individual can be blamed for this—it was a systemic problem, as decisions taken by one government or government agency instantaneously affected the decisions of others. But the result was the restriction of basic freedoms and the normalization of scapegoating and exclusion, both historically a prelude to atrocities.
It is well worth reading the whole piece because as the authors say - No single individual can be blamed for this—it was a systemic problem. There is nothing to be gained by expecting traditional politics to put things right. The interconnected, transnational bureaucratic swamp cannot be corrected via traditional politics because that is where it took root and grew.
As the pandemic ebbs, the years ahead will help determine whether we as democratic citizens and free people are still capable of making our own decisions, pursuing happiness, and refraining from harm, without falling prey to the authoritarian temptations that have felled democracies in the past.
This seems to be the dangerous situation in which we find ourselves. Not the immediate post-pandemic situation, but an apparently intractable problem of correcting further democratic decline via peaceful traditional politics. Pursuing happiness won't do it.
As the pandemic ebbs, the years ahead will help determine whether we as democratic citizens and free people are still capable of making our own decisions, pursuing happiness, and refraining from harm, without falling prey to the authoritarian temptations that have felled democracies in the past.
This seems to be the dangerous situation in which we find ourselves. Not the immediate post-pandemic situation, but an apparently intractable problem of correcting further democratic decline via peaceful traditional politics. Pursuing happiness won't do it.
3 comments:
I think it likely that traditional representative democracy is likely to be badly squeezed, and may even be doomed. Bureaucracy - Max Weber's "iron cage" - develops inexorably. Because we need things to be ordered, it becomes self-developing and increasingly trans-national. Politics might take the form of sporadic and varied revolts against bureaucratic control, rather than a competition between competing visions of how we want the world to be.
Politics is about getting agreement over decisions which will be binding for everyone in society. Bureaucracy has no need of that - it already knows what is best for us.
Bonfire of the QUANGOs. Drain the Swamp. Examples of failed efforts. Undoing an established bureaucracy is like moving a carpet with the furniture still on it, increasing the resistance.
Take Back Control. A step in the right direction with promises of reduced bureaucracy in the future.
Pandemic. I hope the bureaucracy will be rolled back - perhaps the Downing Street Parties fallout will concentrate minds?
Sam - yes, it doesn't look good. Something is always dreamed up for the next agenda and part of the problem with bureaucracy is merely that - bureaucrats never willingly curtail their remit.
DJ - I don't see it happening unless something big is going on below the radar. Alternatively it is possible that many people are comfortable with a tightly controlled life and current trends will continue.
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