By Arshia Jain
Published On: December 29, 2021 at 18:00 IST
Introduction
Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi, and Rodrigo Duterte enter a democracy summit. This isn’t a joke, though.
President Joe Biden thought it would be a good idea to hold a two-day virtual gathering on democracy, where some of the world’s worst offenders could pose as responsible upholders of freedom and dispense homilies on how to save the world from those like themselves, after recently abandoning Afghanistan[i] to an Islamist autocracy and famine, and now finalizing a $650 million[ii] arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
As per the State Department, the goal is to “provide a venue for leaders to declare both personal and group pledges, reforms, and initiatives to defend human rights and democracy at domestically and overseas.” “Bold, practical ideas” on the subjects of “defending against authoritarianism,” “fighting corruption,” and “raising respect for human rights” will be sought through the online forum, according to the statement.
However, there is no reason for the invitation of other countries that are far from democratic. Moreover, a third[iii] of the 110 countries invited are rated as “partly free” by Freedom House, a non-profit organization in the United States. Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Iraq are the only three countries that are not “free.” The Philippines, India, and Kenya are among the more than a dozen countries classed as “electoral autocracies” by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute.
Some of the participant list’s[iv] absences are as perplexing as the inclusions. It’s unclear why strongmen like India’s Modi, the Philippines’ Duterte, and Brazil’s Bolsonaro made the cut but Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t, although they’ve all been systematically destroying democratic institutions in their nations. The offer to Pakistan was granted with no rational reason (By rejecting, the Biden administration saved further embarrassment). It is one of the world’s most dangerous countries[v], with a military-backed administration that came to power after a stolen election and a history of human rights violations. It also makes no sense that Singapore was denied an invitation, even though it is a de facto one-party state that holds clean elections and provides a quality of life and security to its citizens that many summit invitees would kill for. (As a result, public trust in politicians in Singapore is significantly higher than in the other summit countries—even higher than in the host country.)
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan stated on Thursday in Islamabad that his country had no intention of joining any political organization. He claimed that the world had suffered greatly as a result of the Cold War and that Pakistan did not want to be drawn into another one. He wasn’t specifically referring to Biden’s summit, but the connection was clear. The meeting is primarily about allying against China and Russia, no matter how much the White House talks about democracy. Consider the QUAD alliance, but on a larger scale.
Why is the Democracy Summit a geopolitical ruse?
Democratic retrenchment has accelerated over the world, owing to rising inequality and the resulting sense of powerlessness among voters. As people lose faith in their political systems, demagogues become more appealing, thus undermining democratic institutions. The percentage of countries designated as “Not Free” by Freedom House[vi] has reached its highest level in 15 years. According to the report, the international balance of freedom tilted in favor of tyranny in 2020. To his credit, Biden has never shied away from addressing such concerns, proclaiming in one of his first foreign policy speeches as president that the world has reached an “inflection point[vii]” between democracy and despotism and that “we have to prove democracy works.”
Many worthy panellists, including voices outside of political leadership, are reflecting on some of the gravest risks to democracy today at the summit. Conflating attacks on political freedom with a simplistic global fight between ostensibly democratic countries on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other are deceptive at best and provide a legitimizing platform to some countries that are the source of many of the dangers.
Take India, for example. Because the world’s most populous democracy, with 1.3 billion people, is now only designated “Partly Free,” according to Freedom House, fewer than 20% of the world’s population currently lives in a “Free” country. In recent years, Modi has exacerbated India’s slide into dictatorship. According to Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2021 report, his government “encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced vigilante mob attacks” during the pandemic, and “caused the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers” through a “ham-fisted lockdown.” According to the study, “rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi, and his party are tragically dragging India into authoritarianism.”
However, the summit now intends to seek “bold, practical proposals” on preserving liberty from Modi, while Biden wants to pretend that democracy is losing the war against authoritarianism due to China and Russia. This, after Trump, ignored the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendation that India is listed as one of the worst violators of religious freedom. All of this is due to India’s strategic importance in the US-China competition. It’s all about geopolitics. Meanwhile, China has dismissed its absence from the summit by declaring that it, too, is a democracy—one “that works,” according to a position document posted by China’s highest governing body, the State Council.
It takes advantage of the rising notion that the Western worldview is flawed. Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, political scientists, did research in 2014 that looked at roughly 1,800 policy topics over two decades and found that regular Americans had essentially little effect on how politicians dealt with them, who were affected more by economic elites and minor interest groups.
It’s no surprise that 85% of Americans now believe their political system needs to reform. They are completely disillusioned with their political systems, and it isn’t because China and Russia promise a better alternative and have successfully collaborated to undermine democratic trust. It’s because of the damage that democracies have inflicted on themselves.
According to a University of Cambridge study[viii], the percentage of people who say they are “dissatisfied” with democracy has risen from 47.9% in the mid-1990s to 57.5 percent – “the largest degree of democratic discontent on record.”
At the opening of yesterday’s meeting, Biden said[ix], “This is an important problem.” “We’re seeing a lot of data that’s going in the wrong direction,” says the researcher.
He is, however, pointing in the incorrect direction. On a global basis, there is no contest between democracy and dictatorship. When the dispute is internal, pretending otherwise is foolish.
Perspectives from Around the World
- Africa:
The Democracy Summit takes place at a critical juncture for Africa. The continent is hurting from the socioeconomic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and vaccine access is limited (less than 8% of the continent is fully vaccinated[x]), jeopardizing efforts to jump-start its post-pandemic economic recovery. Long-standing conflicts in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, as well as escalating geopolitical tensions among rival global powers, exacerbate this current dilemma. A total of seventeen African countries (about one-third) have been invited to the summit.
The summit’s success can be measured in at least two ways among the seventeen countries that were invited. First, the summit’s stated broad objectives—defending against autocracy, combatting corruption, and supporting human rights—must address the seventeen African members’ immediate socioeconomic demands. Consider the Sahel, where countries like Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali face existential governance issues exacerbated by violent extremism, the flow of weapons from an unstable Libya, and the lack of public amenities in isolated areas. Take, for example, South Africa, one of Africa’s most industrialized countries, which is experiencing chronic political and economic collapse and, according to projections, will become a lower-middle-income economy by 2028. Will the summit be held in the backdrop of these African countries’ daily realities?
- Europe:
There is some resistance in Europe to accept the United States’ return to global leadership. The famous European term “strategic autonomy” expresses the EU’s ambition to be free of a binary leadership choice between Washington and Beijing. Some Europeans are concerned that the narrative underlying Biden’s democracy summit—dividing the globe into democracies fit for engagement and nondemocracies best avoided—does not account for today’s complicated world.
A summit based on this viewpoint may provide consolation to those who attend, but it has limited application. Many European leaders are wary about a US-led summit that divides the world along these lines in the face of the climate catastrophe and a global pandemic, both of which necessitate collaboration across democracies and nondemocracies alike[xi].
- Japan:
Japan’s government has proved its commitment to liberal democratic values by supporting the goal of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific during the last three administrations (FOIP). As a result, it applauds the Biden administration’s decision to hold the Democracy Summit.
Nonetheless, the invitation list has been a contentious subject for the government. Tokyo urged for a more inclusive approach, proposing that all Southeast Asian countries be invited to maintain friendly and constructive relations, even if some are not democracies. To prevent China from annexing disputed territory and ensure freedom of navigation in the East and South China Seas, Japan’s security cooperation with Southeast Asian nations, as well as their support for the FOIP concept, is critical[xii].
- Latin America:
Given the number of nations in Latin America that are experiencing democratic backsliding, the increased international focus on democracy strengthening is a desirable trend. Biden’s forthcoming democracy summit provides an opportunity to reframe the widely held belief that democracy is on the decline and oligarchs are gaining strength throughout the world. Surprisingly, the current democratic crisis in the United States, epitomized by the invasion of the United States Congress on January 6, 2021, may help Washington become a more effective home of such a worldwide debate.
After all, history has demonstrated that a more inclusive environment that allows for the discussion of shared difficulties and best practices is far more beneficial than a one-way process in which stable democracies try to teach unstable democracies. This is especially true when it comes to issues like polarisation and the spread of fake news, which afflict many democracies throughout the world.
- South Asia:
Many in South Asia are wary of the Biden administration’s expectations of uniting a wide coalition of democratic states against the resurgent waves of authoritarianism and backsliding democracies.
First, critics contend that the US must address its democratic shortcomings before preaching democratic norms to India and other countries. In recent years, South Asian countries have watched as the United States’ democracy has deteriorated. Due to a severe loss in civil liberties and political rights in the United States, its Freedom House scores have fallen below those of nascent democracies like Mongolia[xiii]. When regional governments do not have their act together, they are less likely to follow Washington’s lead on democracy.
- United States:
The upcoming Summit for Democracy provides a chance for the United States to assist in galvanizing pledges to democratic values in many countries that are grappling with democracy. Equally important, the summit may provide an opportunity for the US to demonstrate its commitment to democracy following Donald Trump’s norm-breaking administration and the insurgency at the US Capitol.
The Biden administration, on the other hand, has been unable to prevent the rise of anti-democratic forces in the United States. In the context of this week’s meeting, the country continues to be attacked by its democratic institutions. Nineteen states have approved legislation[xiv] making voting more difficult for Americans. Other attempts to sway election outcomes through partisan election administration abound. According to a poll conducted in October 2021, 52 percent of Americans believe that the United States’ democracy is under “significant jeopardy.” Is the summit likely to boost Americans’ faith in the country’s democracy’s long-term viability and resilience?
- India:
India’s ongoing experiment with democratic decentralization is, however, the most robust and exciting democratic innovation it can share with the rest of the globe. This decentralized experiment, which began in 1992 with twin constitutional changes (73rd and 74th) to create third-tier administrations (rural and urban local bodies), has gained traction over the previous three decades. With 3 million representatives at various levels, this is by far the greatest democratic activity anywhere on the planet (Gram Sabha, Panchayat Samiti, and Zilla Parishad).
Decentralization’s social inclusion tale in terms of offering political space to the most marginalized people is the best aspect of it. More than a million new representatives from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes have benefited from obligatory reservations for women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. This is, without a doubt, India’s most radical affirmative action scheme for women in politics. Despite significant institutional and resource limitations and flaws, democratic decentralization is deepening and having a cumulative influence.
A Gram Sabha (the legislative body of the Panchayati Raj System at the village level) representing the most primitive tribes in Niyamgiri, Odisha, can reject a huge mining project, highlighting the power these institutions possess under this new democratic experiment[xv]. This must be communicated explicitly to the democracy summit participants.
Finally, India must express emphatically its long history of democracy, diversity, and involvement, which dates back thousands of years before it was colonized and legally democratized in 1947. This fact was brought up by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent United Nations General Assembly speech, in which he emphasized the presence of such democratic traditions. The Rig Veda has enumerated the idea of the Sabha (large gathering of people) and Samiti (rule of law) well before Athenian democracy arrived with formal legislative institutions and standards (smaller gathering of people). The republican system, which allowed citizens to directly participate in polls and governance, was created by ancient Indian kingdoms such as the Licchavis. As a result, it is past time for non-western and indigenous versions of democracy and liberalism to be articulated on a global scale.
Conclusion
The Summit for Democracy, which takes place this week, provides a chance for Biden’s administration to raise excitement and galvanize action toward the objective of reviving global democracy. However, whether the summit succeeds in fulfilling its noble objective will be primarily determined by the upcoming “year of action.” The summit’s success depends in large part on each participating country making concrete commitments to strengthen democracy at home and abroad, which they must then carry out throughout 2022. A few variables will be critical if these promises are to allow the summit to fulfill its overall objective. Participants’ promises must first be specific and measurable. They should also be meaningful, at the risk of repeating the obvious.
To summarise, despite rising political polarisation and increased degrees of democratic degradation in the last decade, India’s democracy is not faring as badly as many international watchdogs and rating agencies have claimed. Those who have given up on India’s future or labeled it an “electoral autocrat” are missing out on a plethora of ongoing democratic experiments, and India is far too broad and diverse a democracy to be assessed just on a few self-selected axioms. It’s still a work in progress, as seen by the success of a year-long farm sit-in. The fact that the most powerful government in the world finally caved into democratic pressure to repeal three highly contentious farm regulations is a testament to the country’s democracy’s tenacity. In the guise of micro-analysis of metrics, the vibrancy and durability of its multi-level democracy cannot be easily wished away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arshia Jain is a second-year law student at SVKM’s NMIMS, School of Law in Navi Mumbai, Mumbai, India, pursuing a BBALLB. When it comes to work, she is a dedicated and hardworking individual. She believes in pursuing one’s dreams and remaining optimistic throughout life.
Edited by: Aashima Kakkar, Associate Editor, Law Insider
References
- freedom house
- Pakistan desires to bridge gaps between US, China instead of joining any bloc by Dawn
- Quad Biden China covered by Time
- Media Freedom and Sustainability, Co-hosted with the Netherlands
- Biden Summit for democracy covered by Time
[i] The Lessons for Asia as Biden Deserts Afghanistan (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[ii] Saudi gets first major arms deal under Biden with air-to-air missiles (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[iii] Who’s In and Who’s Out From Biden’s Democracy Summit (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[iv] Summit for Democracy: Invited Participants (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[v] Most Dangerous countries covered by world population review (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[vi] democracy under siege (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[vii] democracy and autocracy at ‘inflection point’ by the vibes (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[viii] Global dissatisfaction with democracy at a record high (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[ix] Remarks By President Biden At The Summit For Democracy Opening Session (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[x] Omicron Africa vaccine covered by time (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[xi] We need straight-talk and determined action on democracy by EEAS (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[xii] Summit for Democracy: Invited Participants (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[xiii] America’s real democratic challenge is internal (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[xiv] Voting Laws Roundup (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)
[xv] Democracy summit: How India should approach (Last Visited on December 29th, 2021)