\n<\/p>\n
E<\/span>mmanuel Macron sounded like a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste<\/em>. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a \u201cdegeneration of democracy\u201d. Many threats emanated from outside, from Russia, from China, from powerful US tech companies and social-media entrepreneurs, France\u2019s president said. \u201cBut we should not be naive. On the inside we are turning on ourselves. We doubt our own democracy \u2026 We see everywhere that something is happening to our democratic fabric. Democratic debate is turning into a debate of hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n Squeezed between vituperative extremes of right and left, Macron knows of what he speaks. But \u201cungovernable\u201d France is not alone in its bitter, intractable divisions. Across Europe, in the UK and the US, distrust and grievance daily deepen political dysfunction and social discord. Macron\u2019s words apply, in fact, to almost any country espousing democratic principles. Belief that democracy is the form of governance best suited to the modern world is dwindling, especially among younger people. Meanwhile, the public space grows coarser and more violent. Macron was speaking at an event marking the 35th anniversary of Germany\u2019s 1990 reunification, a moment of great optimism. Yet, like France, today\u2019s polarised Germany faces an acute crisis of political faith.<\/p>\n Just look around. In elections last weekend, the Czech Republic followed Poland, Austria and other EU states in lurching towards the populist hard right, swept along on a rising tide of anti-establishment negativity. Support for opportunistic bigots who feed on fear, resentment and loss \u2013 while lacking credible policies on complex issues such as migration \u2013 is not an endorsement of democracy but its despoliation. This ugly rush to extremes is a vote of no confidence in the democratic system itself, exacerbated by reduced levels of participation and turnout among disadvantaged social groups.<\/p>\n In all these countries, a national democratic consensus is woefully lacking. In declining, despairing Britain, where national flags are worn like comfort blankets, both leading mainstream parties are flailing; yet the alternatives are implausible or downright pernicious. In the US, the \u201chome of democracy\u201d, effective opposition to Republican one-party rule has all but collapsed, at least at national level. Striving to gerrymander congressional districts, Donald Trump increasingly resembles a dictator.<\/p>\n Lack of genuine democratic choice and economic opportunity, fuelling alienation and revolt, beset countries as diverse as Morocco, Kenya and Bangladesh, all of which have witnessed recent upheavals. In the Philippines, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia and Madagascar, corruption and abuse of power have triggered anti-government protests. In Nepal last month, young people powered a \u201cgen-Z revolution\u201d. All these countries, in Europe and beyond, are different \u2013 except in one vital respect. Compared with authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia, their societies remain relatively open and free, for now.<\/p>\n This is the fundamental challenge each faces: democracy isn\u2019t working, or it is working so badly it risks being jettisoned. The once exemplary US \u2013 a paradigm lost \u2013 and fractious western Europe are faltering. And once again, less established democracies in the global south, and in central and eastern Europe, are frontline states in a reviving cold war of influence and values fought against the Beijing-Moscow axis. Like Moldova and Georgia, to name two recent battlegrounds, they could go either way.<\/p>\n A crunch is coming. In its annual report, Freedom House, the US-based rights watchdog, found that violence, poll manipulation and repression marred more than 40% of national elections held in 2024. Global freedom, assessed in terms of political liberties and civil rights, declined for a 19th consecutive year. \u201cConflicts spread instability and thwarted democratic progress around the world,\u201d the report concluded.<\/p>\n In the US, a recent survey found a record 64% of Americans believe their democracy \u201cis too politically divided to solve the nation\u2019s problems\u201d. In the UK, a poll of people aged 16-29 found 63% think democracy is in trouble. While young people \u201cpreferred to live in a democracy over a dictatorship by 57% to 27%\u201d, only 35% said they would consider getting involved in organised politics.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to Matters of Opinion<\/span><\/p>\n Guardian columnists and writers on what they\u2019ve been debating, thinking about, reading, and more<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n If a sort of global anti-democracy revolt or, at least, a critical loss of faith in democratic systems is occurring, it would be useful to know why. Short- and long-term economic issues \u2013 the cost of living, inflation, lack of good jobs, de-industrialisation, shattered communities, institutional failures, wealth inequality, globalisation, mass migration linked to the climate crisis, the busted myth of infinitely sustainable growth \u2013 are all factors. Untrustworthy leaders, reflecting falling moral standards, is another. Insidious election meddling and online fakery by Russia and others hasten breakdown. Younger generations are pitted against ageing populations. And there is hopelessness, as well as anger, about the mess the world is in, environmentally and geopolitically.<\/p>\n For Andreas Reckwitz of Humboldt University of Berlin, all this discontent is rooted in an overall, profound and ubiquitous sense of loss. \u201cWestern modernity\u2019s foundational lie\u201d \u2013 the post-Enlightenment belief that human progress is constant and inevitable, that everything gets better over time, that life improves \u2013 has been brutally exploded by the experience of recent decades, Reckwitz argues. \u201cLoss has become a pervasive condition of life \u2026 The question is no longer whether loss can be avoided but whether societies bound to \u2018better\u2019 or \u2018more\u2019 can learn to endure \u2018less\u2019 and \u2018worse\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Seen this way, rejection of failing democratic structures and the advance of demagogic throwbacks pledging a return to \u201cthe way things were\u201d are more easily understood. \u201cIf politics continues to promise endless improvement, it will fuel disillusionment and strengthen populisms that thrive on betrayed expectations,\u201d Reckwitz writes. \u201cPopulism channels anger over what has disappeared but provides only illusions of recovery. The crucial question then becomes: how to deal with loss?\u201d<\/p>\n Reckwitz has his own suggestions, involving resilience and redistribution. If anyone has a definitive answer, Macron, with much to lose, would surely love to hear it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emmanuel Macron sounded like a man in grief. Not angry, not defiant, just a little triste. Europe, he lamented, was suffering a \u201cdegeneration of democracy\u201d. Many threats emanated from outside, from Russia, from China, from powerful US tech companies and social-media entrepreneurs, France\u2019s president said. \u201cBut we should not be naive. On the inside we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[11042,187,5357,7505,2918,1913,3965,6042,16441,550],"class_list":{"0":"post-27561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-belief","9":"tag-crisis","10":"tag-democratic","11":"tag-faith","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-political","14":"tag-simon","15":"tag-tisdall","16":"tag-vanishing","17":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}