Democracy is vulnerable

Many people take democracy for granted, but democracy is rather vulnerable. Several countries in the world are moving from democracy towards a more authoritarian and dictatorial rule. Are there other ways to achieve fair rule than democracy as we know it today?

Is democracy about to fall?

Several democracies have been shaken in the last decade due to dissatisfaction with the political governance. There have been economic crises and we have seen political leaders who want to return to autocracy. Autocracy is a form of government in which most of the political power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or a small group.

Not enough support

Support for democracy is at its lowest since World War II, especially in the Western world. This means that many citizens do not get involved in political elections, and do not exercise their right to vote. If things continue like this, only half of the people in the West will vote in elections in five years’ time.

How will we be ruled?

Is democracy disappearing – and if so, what will replace it? Will there be dictatorships like the ones we know from the beginning of the last century, or is it artificial intelligence that will rule us in the future?

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Have we learned anything from history?

Much of what happens in the world has already happened before, but do we really learn anything from history? Most people probably want to live safely and be involved in deciding about their own lives. So why do so many people experience the exact opposite?

Different forms of government

Democracy differs from other forms of government such as dictatorship and anarchy. Democracy has more often been the exception than the rule. Countries and areas have often been ruled by dictators.

Dictators and oligarchs

A dictatorship is often ruled by one person, such as the dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany during World War II. Most people did not have any right to decide how the country was ruled. A dictatorship can also be ruled by oligarchs, in which case there is a group of people who are in power. Many of these heads of state were and still are brutal and violent leaders.

Anarchy and meritocracy

Anarchy is a form of government where no one holds any superior power. Society is ruled through cooperation and a wish for free will. In a meritocracy, those with special abilities and skills are put in charge. This form of government is very rare.

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Democracy in Athens

Democracy in Athens was perhaps more of a gentlemen’s club than a democracy. Despite the fact that it was a major change to transfer power from one person to many, still only 10 percent of the citizens were allowed to take part in the decision-making. No women or slaves were allowed to participate.

The men who were allowed to decide met a few times a month and cast their votes by putting colored stones in a jar.

There were no political parties, no elections and no opponents. There were no mechanisms that controlled power. The legislature could therefore commit offenses, and no one held them responsible for their actions.

Since there were so few citizens in the group, it was more like a direct system than a representative democracy like the one we have in Norway today.

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The Corsican Constitution

Democracy on Corsica, an island outside Italy, is a lesser-known part of history. After many years in which other countries had taken power over the people of Corsica, the Corsicans fought to gain freedom. They created a constitution that all citizens signed. This was something completely new and radical.

In Corsica, both women and men were allowed to vote in and stand for elections. The people were to decide. Unfortunately, Corsican democracy did not last long. In 1769, after 14 years of democracy, the French invaded Corsica and removed democracy there.

📷 The port of Bonifacio in Corsica.

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Democracies began to flourish

In the mid-19th century, democracies began to be established. Part of the reason for this was that more people were educated and wanted to make their opinions known, and the ruling powers realized that they could not keep the people out of politics. When many people choose to exercise their right to vote, democracy grows.

📷 People going to vote in the US.

The democracies grow in three major waves:

The first wave came in the first half of the 19th century. That is when almost all white men in America were granted the right to vote.

The second wave came after the Allied victory in World War II. In 1962 there were 36 democracies.

The third wave was between 1970 and 1990, when several dictatorships in Europe and Latin America were dissolved due to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Between the second and third waves, the number of democracies in the world tripled, and optimism was high. The optimism was due to the fact that democracy was understood as the only possible form of government, at the same time as fascism and communism had been defeated. At the beginning of the 2000s, democracy was believed to be here to stay.

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Many democracies disappeared

After each wave of democracies the development slowed down and there were setbacks. So some countries went back to authoritarian regimes. The most critical period was after the First World War. Between 1922 and 1944, the number of democracies in the world was halved, and the number of dictatorships grew. The 1930s therefore showed us that democracies were not self-evident.

📷 The Soviet Union was a dictatorship under the rules of Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924) and Josef Stalin (1924-1953). The picture shows the flag of the Soviet Union used between 1923-1991.

The road to power

So how do these leaders gain power through internal dissolution?

They can start by gaining power over the courts. They clear them out and choose their own judges, and use them for their own protection and as weapons against their enemies.

They can then take control of the media. These must be forced into cooperation and silence through bribes or persecution.

The last thing that needs to be done is to create problems for the opposition by changing the election rules.

Once this process of internal dissolution is underway, the country is well on its way to becoming an autocracy.

Why do we choose such leaders?

Poor economy, high unemployment, and the fact that many people do not know what the future will bring play an important part. Many people often have little faith that the future will be better than the present, and think that the standard of living will be worse for the next generations, and they no longer see the benefits of democracy.

Populist leaders come up with quite simple solutions to the problems, and they try to show potential voters that the future will be better.

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Can we imagine other systems?

Could artificial intelligence and technology take over democracy?

As early as in 1651, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes promoted the idea of an automated state where decisions were made on the basis of research. He wrote about this in his book Leviathan.

But can we trust the machines?

So far the use of artificial intelligence has shown that the technology is not flawless. Mistakes and losses happen, sometimes with major consequences. Will the algorithms used always give correct answers? Supercomputers also have no emotions or values. An algorithm therefore cannot decide whether one does something morally right or wrong.

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How can we achieve true democracy?

There are different forms of how people can participate in a democracy. In Norway, we participate in local and parliamentary elections where we choose who will represent us – representative democracy. We therefore vote for political parties and politicians. Then we depend on the parties and politicians we have voted for to make decisions that we agree with. That will not always happen because they represent thousands of people, and not just you.

Referendums

A few times we have had referendums, where the people vote on a concrete matter – direct democracy. This happened for example in 1972 and 1994 when the people had to decide whether Norway should become a member of the EU (in 1972 it was called the EC). Such referendums are a form of direct democracy, and not representative – which is usually the case in Norway.

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