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ON DEMOCRACY — INTERPRETATIONS AND MISINTERPRETATIONS
As the term “liberal democracy” is open to different understanding, certain
tendencies in some democracies are seen as “illiberal” — like in contemporary
Hungary, as the government is interested in controlling the media and reducing
the independence and importance of the judiciary. In many democracies, there
is also a tendency to use nationalist feeling for the manipulation of public
opinion: When specific groups are singled out as “defining others” (like Roma
in some Southeast European countries), the inclusiveness of democracy seems
to be jeopardized.
EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY —
THE PARADOX OF GLOBALIZATION
Democracy is based on the idea of the intrinsic equality of men as in- the
wording of the American Declaration of Independence, 1776: “all men are born
free and equal”. But inequality exists. When inequality is enshrined in laws,
this can be changed by political means. But when inequality is the result of an
economic, social, cultural dynamism, it cannot be eroded by political decisions.
Democracy has to learn to live with inequality. The effects, the consequences
of inequality can be corrected, but only within certain limits.
The ability of democracies to correct the impact of inequality is confronted
with the impact of globalization. Globalization creates winners and losers. The
winners seem to be the poorer countries — the over-proportional economic
growth in China and India indicates this, as does the significant improvement of
Human Development Indicators (like life expectation, literacy, gender equality)
in the same parts of the world. The losers are the prosperous industrialized
regions of North America and Europe — especially the socially weaker segments
of the richer parts of the world, like American and European “blue collar”
workers.
The result is an increasing frustration in specific segments of democracies,
explaining why in Europe the parties profiting from this trend are not the
traditional parties of the left but right-wing populist parties (like the French
FN) articulating an interest of excluding “others” (like migrants, refugees).
The trend towards an increasing inequality is a trend — a trend convincingly
described and analyzed by authors like Thomas Piketty® — within the relatively
privileged regions of the world. It is not a trend which can be seen in all major
6
Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge, Mass., The Belknap Press
of Harvard University, 2014.
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