Democracy under pressure

Democracy has been challenged in recent years not just by populists of the right, but from a renewed progressive left as well.”

Psychologist Stephen Pinker clings to the faith. He tells us we are living in the best of times: a time of global peace, technological advancement, we are healthier and wealthier and live longer than at any other time in human history.

However, as the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama says: ” Yes. But try telling that to someone living in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Try telling that to someone in Ukraine.

Try telling African Americans dying under the knee of cops that these are the best of times.

Does democracy bend toward tyranny? Remember, Adolf Hitler was elected.

Vladimir Putin is elected. Viktor Orban in Hungary, who has boasted of his “illiberal democracy”, was elected.

Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro and India’s Narendra Modi have each been accused of undermining democracy. Both were democratically elected.

Now the Philippines has elected its new president Ferdinand Marcos Junior — the son of the former dictator and kleptocrat, Ferdinand Marcos, who kept an iron grip on the nation for decades.

Marcos Junior follows another elected autocrat, Rodrigo Duterte, whose daughter will now be sworn in as vice president.

The Times