Independent human rights organizations state that America is one of the Western democracies whose democratic institutions have eroded in recent years. VOA asked experts about the point where global democracies have come and how this can be reversed.
The world was in shock as supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the American Congress on January 6, 2021 to block the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Drawing attention to studies that argue that democracies are in decline around the world, experts state that what happened in the Congress building, which is the symbol of democracy in America, left an even more negative impact.
Thomas Carothers, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, “Why is Brazil regressing in democracy and at the same time why is India going backwards? Does Brazil’s decline in democracy have anything to do with what is happening in Turkey or India or America? Although many countries are fighting at the same time, the reasons are different. There is now a general feeling in many democracies that citizens are not happy with what governments are doing for them. “They want to vote for candidates who will disrupt the system,” he says.
According to a Pew Center study, only 17 percent of the country’s citizens surveyed consider American democracy an example. In the past, this figure was 57 percent.
Richard Wike of the Pew Research Center said, “One of the things we’ve seen in our surveys is that people in America have real concerns about racial and ethnic discrimination. The vast majority state that this is an important problem in one way or another. And by and large, the vast majority think this is a major problem in America,” he says.
Since the founding of America, racial discrimination and the role of the state have been intertwined. According to Pew’s Richard Wike, this polarization continued, but views about America improved significantly after Joe Biden was elected President.
“Biden was loved more than Trump,” Wike said. They like their politics more than Trump. They want America to stay in touch with the rest of the world. They want America’s foreign policy to be multilateral. In other words, when Biden returned to the Paris Climate Agreement and rejoined the World Health Organization, these steps were more accepted abroad.”
Democracy experts say that if America is to reverse the global decline in democracy, people must get to the root of their problems.
“When America looks at embattled democracies, it has to think about why its citizens are so angry,” Carothers said. What makes them unhappy? What drives them to support undemocratic and subversive leaders? If they are very angry about corruption, America should press hard to help them fight corruption. “If they’re angry at economic exclusion, like in Peru and Chile, you need to help them,” he says.
Experts say that efforts to defend democracy will continue to be a priority and challenge for President Biden and his administration, both in the United States and abroad, in 2022 and beyond.