Democracy Under Strain

Abstract

This chapter draws on recent literature that identifies the nature and causes of the crisis in democracy. That literature includes works by the economists Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Picketty; the political scientists Stephen Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt and Cass Sunstein, and the philosopher A. C. Grayling. It identifies and discusses the causes of the loss of trust in democratic institutions; the widening of economic inequality in Western democracies; the rise of populism and the effect of social media on democratic discourse. It describes the growth in economic inequality and the effects of globalisation on Western economies, based on the analyses of Picketty and Stiglitz. It describes the symptoms of the crisis in democracy, based on the work of Levitsky, Ziblatt and Grayling. One symptom is the breakdown in norms such as institutional forbearance, by which politicians accept the legitimacy of their opponents; another is the coarsening of public discourse in which extremity of viewpoints is expressed in extremity of language; a third, which is a product of polarisation, is the diluting of a sense of shared purpose. The causes and effects of this polarisation are explored through the comprehensive meta-analysis of Sunstein, who has reviewed in detail diverse research on the effects of social media: how it has created a public discourse that is at once broader and yet more fragmented. The phenomenon prophesied by John Negroponte about the emergence of a “Daily Me”, a news feed tailored to each individual’s personal tastes as revealed by algorithms, is also discussed. Its effects are seen in the development of echo chambers and filter bubbles. The chapter also notes the effects of fear deriving from terrorism and climate change on public confidence and sentiment, effects suddenly magnified by the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. This chapter sets the scene for what immediately follows: first an examination of two phenomena antithetical to liberal democracy, and then an examination of two counter-phenomena essential to liberal democracy.