The Debating Society
Hobbies & Interests
A place where ModDB members can debate civilly, and learn from each other's views.
The end of liberal democracy?
(view original)
Post a comment
Description
Interesting read.
I strongly encourage reading the full article before commenting, then interject with your own views. Overall, I believe the next 4 years will be quite entertaining, as well as engaging.
Excellent article- I feel like it sums up the "zeitgeist" of the current moment pretty well, and definitely peers forward at things to come. Right now certainly feels like a paradigm shift- all times feel like they're times of change, but sometimes you feel like you're on the knife's-edge of history.
As to whether this actually is the knife's-edge of history, I guess we'll see. It's hard to tell if we're experiencing a true turning point, or a trend that will fizzle out in the next few years. I have some doubts that the discontent/anger (not using those terms negatively, I think they're justified) fueling current political momentum in the US/Europe can be sustained in the long term. Once new leaders take the reigns of government I think that their opponents will only grow more viciously opposed, and their supporters will be disillusioned if bold visions don't materialize or the economy falters. The backlash to 2016 may be just as interesting to watch as today.
I guess I think that people who are claiming this is the end of liberal democracy, whether they're terrified of it or relish it, shouldn't count their chickens before their eggs hatch. Many normal people are awfully fond of liberal democracy, as are international businesses, most politicians, the press, 'the elite', etc., which when put together wield quite a lot of influence. So if in ~5 years the EU is gone, protectionism is widespread, immigrants are deported, etc. then I'd say liberal democracy has taken a hit (not necessarily gone)- though right now I mostly just see ideas, not policy. I guess we'll have to wait and see!
My assessment is we're going to see a dis-unification between the US and the EU. As the EU is now fighting for it's life given the circumstances now surrounding it given the quake from the Brexit and Trump win. So they need to do damage control.
That said, they don't really know what a Trump presidency will mean for them, they never reached out to the man and his attache to learn for themselves. But I can say, Trump will not be pro-globalist, he has frequent phone calls with people like Alex Jones who is like the ultimate conspiracy theorist against globalism.
Will liberal democracy die in the next 4-5 years? Not likely, but it will certainly lose a great amount of influence experiencing a fracture of the western world in ideology. The EU is relying on Merkel right now, so they're short on options and dealing with elections that could be riding the tsunami from the other two big events this year. Every loss, means a weaker EU and more divided populace for them to deal with. A populace riding the wave, and a populace sticking with the ground they've been on the last decade.
Whatever happens, 2016 will go down in the history books.