The democratic recession of the past decade reflects not only the rise of authoritarian alternatives but the failure of democratic institutions to deliver the outcomes that their legitimacy depends on.
The Democratic Recession
The democratic recession — the global pattern of democratic backsliding, institutional erosion, and the rising political fortunes of authoritarian alternatives — is the defining governance story of the past decade. The simplest account of the recession focuses on the external actors who have promoted authoritarian alternatives and the domestic politicians who have exploited institutional weaknesses to accumulate power. This account is accurate but incomplete: the external promoters and the domestic exploiters are exploiting real failures of democratic governance rather than simply overwhelming functional democratic institutions. The democratic recession's deepest causes are internal to the democratic institutions whose deterioration is being observed.
Democratic institutions that do not deliver — that produce the policy paralysis, the inequality, the unresponsiveness to public needs, and the corruption that the public experiences — generate the disillusionment that makes authoritarian alternatives attractive. The specific authoritarian leader's specific appeal varies across contexts, but the underlying dynamic is consistent: the failure of democratic institutions to produce the outcomes that the public expects creates the space that authoritarian alternatives fill. Defending democratic institutions against external and internal threats requires addressing the institutional failures that make the threats credible — not only the formal institutional design but the substantive democratic performance that institutional design is supposed to produce.
Democratic institutions are under pressure from authoritarian alternatives that would not be competitive if the democratic institutions were delivering. The defence of democracy is not only the defence of democratic forms and procedures — it is the improvement of democratic performance well enough that the authoritarian alternative loses its appeal to the people whose disillusionment is currently sustaining it.
Discussion