Authoritarianism is taking over the world. Will it snare Australia?
It would seem that many countries around the world have decided that democracy has run its race. Russia, India, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, China, Slovakia, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Libya, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan have-authoritarian-governments.
An explosion of elections is due now or into the near future that will see far-right authoritarian leaders elected who have parroted:
“Amidst all the chaos and uncertainty in the world, it seems that some politicians are trying to gain our trust by making big promises. They pledge to tackle issues like promiscuity, immigration, and corrupt leaders. Do you think they’ll be able to follow through on their promises?”
Many people are concerned about the increasing popularity of right-wing populism, nationalism, and worldwide polarisation. In just a few years:
Within just a few years, we’ve witnessed the election of Donald Trump in the US, the Brexit decision in the UK, the rise of Matteo Salvini in Italy, Victor Orbán in Hungary, the Freedom party in Austria and the Law and Justice party in Poland. The world’s largest democracy, India, is menaced by a newly virulent nationalism and xenophobia.
And last year, the Philippines elected Ferdinand Marcos’ son as President, signalling their preference for strongman politics.
President Putin is expected to secure a victory in the upcoming Russian election. The President has criticised the Western concept of gender, labelling it as a “perversion” and a “complete denial of man.” According to him, the idea is part of an “overthrow of faith and traditional values” by the Western elites.
Many nations and their leaders have discarded democratic practices and turned towards authoritarianism, while some democracies have been shaken by populist forces that reject fundamental principles. Countries with authoritarian powers are banning opposition groups, jailing their leaders, and tightening the screws on independent media.
Findings, released as:
“… part of the 2023 ANU Crawford Leadership Forum, show 77.4 per cent of Australians say they are satisfied or very satisfied with Democracy compared to 81 per cent in 2008.”
Political scientists will tell us that:
“Authoritarianism is the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. It has a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.”
And that:
“An authoritarian government is also one that inflicts strict rules that limit the personal freedoms of its people. Citizens of countries that have an authoritarian government have diminished rights and privileges and are typically unable to freely practice their faith, fully express themselves, or choose their leaders through free and fair elections.”
When in 1991, the USSR collapsed, to the surprise of many in the West, what materialised was not a liberal democratic government. It was not the end of soviet history as we knew it, for what emerged was Authoritarianism. Since then, it has slowly crawled like rust into a world uncertain of its future.
To vote for these authoritarian, often corrupt figures, the citizens of democratic governments have to be monumentally dissatisfied, firstly, with the governance of their country, secondly, with their leader. Then, they give in to the favoured candidate.
After that, they are confronted with rigged elections.
Having accepted authoritarianism, the peoples of all the nations mentioned increasingly have less to say about their destiny. They are victims of their ignorance and the misinformation used to scare them.
Unfortunately, many voters lack sufficient political awareness, creating a situation where less informed voters outnumber the more politically aware. Consequently, conservative politicians often resort to misleading information to sway public opinion. Such misinformation contains many untruths propagated through various channels to achieve their political objectives. This phenomenon undermines the democratic process and may lead to detrimental outcomes for the general public.
If we are to save our democracy, we might begin by insisting that, at the very least, our politicians should tell the truth.
We have to ask why it was that when Russia tumbled, communism wasn’t replaced with some form of Liberal Democracy. Therefore, the invasion of Ukraine, a democratic European country, by an authoritarian regime should have come as no surprise.
Over the past 15 years, the principles of Liberal Democracy have been experiencing a decline and have rapidly retreated. This trend has recently reached a point that was once considered impossible to imagine. A study by Professor Nicholas Biddle said that:
“… the most significant change was fewer Australians being ‘very satisfied’ with Democracy than 15 years ago – 14.2 per cent compared to 23.4 per cent.”
Within many liberal democracies, authoritarian leaders continue to gain strength and popularity
A new report by The Global State of Democracy 2023 says that the erosion of democratic norms has been engineered by leaders claiming to speak in the name of and with the people’s authority.
In many parts of the globe, the fundamental principles of democracy are threatened by various populist leaders whose only interest is in the power they can obtain and the privileges that go with it.
When looking for those ingredients that make a democracy, ask yourself:
Are there free elections?
Is there an independent law system?
Is there a separation of powers?
Is there any transparency in government?
Is there a real opposition?
Who is in control of the budget?
Are ideas and diversity trashed?
Are those who vehemently oppose authoritarianism brushed aside?
I understand that it can be disheartening to see the decline of Liberal Democracy worldwide. It is difficult to accept that this trend has been ongoing for the last decade and a half, and understandably, such an outcome would be hard to imagine.
Is Australia at risk? Could we have a better Democracy?
In recent years, we have witnessed three individual politicians who have used the techniques of the authoritarian leader, fear, negativity, misinformation and lies. I refer to Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and the now opposition leader Peter Dutton. All have used the methods of an Authoritarian ruler.
The best defence against authoritarianism is to create the best Democracy possible
Democracy is a complex political system involving rules and conventions with various other components. The essence lies in the coming together of people who share common beliefs and values, working in unison to establish a framework of principles that serve as a compass to direct their conduct and choices. It is a process that requires active participation and engagement from all members of the community, with a focus on inclusivity and equality. Democracy is a mechanism for achieving consensus and promoting the common good through dialogue, debate, and compromise.
They then become the foundation of political parties. These ideologies pull in different directions in a quest for majority approval by the people. It is a far from perfect system that has variations all around the world. It is elastically flexible, unpredictable and, at its worst, violent and highly combative.
Having declared authoritarianism a form of dictatorship, next week I will look at a better democracy and how to achieve it.
My thought for the day
We exercise our involvement in our democracy every three years by voting. After that, the vast majority takes very little interest. Why is it so?
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13 comments
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Nice Martin -
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paul walter
Return to home pageDemocracy implies giving the people the right to change policy, not just people. Since centuries old concepts of left and right have virtually died and both sides of politics in most western countries, certainly in the Anglosphere, are in thrall to big business, democracy has in reality been replaced by oligarchy. The people can express diverse opinions in a democracy, but those who call for anything outside the mainstream are marginalised and ignored. Indeed, it is worse than that. Even significant majorities – as, for example, those who call for peace in Israel in the USA and UK – are powerless to change government policy, which is decided by the few who pay for politicians’ election campaigns. Democracies may be kinder to dissidents – though not when they make a big enough impact, as did Assange – but they pay as little attention as the authoritarians to what the people want. PS Vladimir Putin has a popularity rating at least twice as high as that of most “democratic” leaders.
The rot started with Reagan/Thatcher and continues, we no longer have a party of the left (maybe the greens) The US has two parties of the right. The resurgence of the right always leads to war…WW3 on the way.
Nice Martin,
I consider left-right to be a horizontal spectrum defining relative progressive or conservative ideas and values, although it can also be defined as graduations between socialism and capitalism.
There is also a vertical axis between libertarian and authoritarian, regarding how much civil authority someone believes should be exerted upon the general citizenry.
H!tler and St@lin came from relatively disparate political persuasions, but both were in favour of heavy handed methods of policy implementation.
Nice Martin:
In the west ‘democracy has in reality been replaced by oligarchy’
Could not have put it better. And we are powerless to change it. I don’t think that even a Gough Whitlam could succeed today.
Nice Martin, you make so many good points.
Here’s one — “Democracies may be kinder to dissidents – though not when they make a big enough impact, as did Assange – but they pay as little attention as the authoritarians to what the people want.”
The Assange case shows that in a liberal democracy you are free as a bird, just as they say, until you threaten the capacity of the parasitical class to continue their exploitation of society.
John Lord asks “Will it snare Australia?’
As you correctly implied, we are already there.
So we are tethered by invisible chains, and as Rosa Luxemburg pointed out a century ago, “Those that don’t move never feel their chains.”
As the Julian Assange situation makes crystal clear, take one step outside the sandpit and you quickly feel the chains, a risk of which he would have been well aware.
“We’re already there”
If you think Australia is fully in the grip of authoritarianism, you should try living under Putin or Orban.
Our system is a bit harder to subvert, although the RW MSM is doing its best. I shudder to think what would have happened if Scoott (five ministries and counting) Morrison hadn’t been given the elbow at the last federal election.
Yes Nice Martin, pretty well nails it.
Imo, whilst there’s been philosophies, ideologies and theoretical schemes, there’s never been overarching moves on achievement of freedom. But rather moves for control and divisive acquisition-contingent outcomes with a fallback to winner takes all.
So entrapped by the accumulation of perceived failures in pursuit of various freedoms, compromise gives way to absolutes, and so the slippery slide to the expedience of lies, revisionism, dogma, populism, parasitism, the rise of demagogs, authoritarianism, despots and ultimately animus and the cycle of war and obliteration.
Each time, glorified by feckless idiots trampling on the ashes of former lives and planetary resources.
Of concern in the list of nations would be those that claim ability and aspirations for western style liberal democracy or wealth, but fight against it, namely Hungary, Russia and formerly Poland, now led by centre right Tusk.
Often what is ignored across the world is how increasing numbers of ageing voters are easily manipulated by nativist authoritarian regimes and RW media cartels, especially regions, to vote against their own and future generations’ interests.
Exemplified by Hungary, UK Brexit and Trump’s ‘base’ where authoriarian tactics are used to intimidate not just opposition, but their own side…..
George Monbiot in The Guardian ‘What links Rishi Sunak, Javier Milei and Donald Trump? The shadowy network behind their policies’ and concerning dynamics around national politics, media, think tanks and governance.
The ‘junk tanks’ he talks of, observed in Anglosphere and globally are Atlas – Koch Network and another that shares donors in the US, Tanton Network.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/06/rishi-sunak-javier-milei-donald-trump-atlas-network
Slow process. To Americanise even Israel took a long time.
But this year has been bad so far and things like AI and marketing techniques will only worsen it quickly.
At the 2022 Election, Scotty From Marketing had the slogan, “It won’t be easy under Albanese.” Well, it’s a hell of a lot easier under Albanese for marginalised people than it was under Tone the Botty, Scotty from Marketing, or would be under, shudder, Potty Boy Peter Dutton! Tone the Botty is an Orbanist dickhead. Potty Boy is an authoritarian idiot!
Aha, Cool Pete, Peter Duckwit-Futton is actually an idiotic punctured blowup sex doll, producing political asthma. cerebral emptiness, a black hole of the soul, awareness aridity, political putridity, national nongnongery, utter futility, upchuckery…
You couldn’t resist the politically meaningless 5 letter word?
Loved your thought, lord, but not sure compulsory voting is democratic.
There are many who don’t engage with politics, before, during and after elections. In the last election in Switzerland 54% neglected to vote and, elsewhere, at least 1 in 3 give voting a miss.
ps
countries with compulsory voting
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Congo, Democratic
Republic of the
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Greece
Honduras
Lebanon
Luxembourg
Mexico
Nauru
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Singapore
Thailand
Uruguay
Source: CIA World Factbook
You know, this authoritarianism. Got censored at twitter for mentioning the death of a High financier. A bit trigger-happy, eh?