Dear West. You need democracy more than ‘us’. Work toward that Now!

Post October 7, 2023, the world has been thrown into tumult. The proximate cause for that is the war between Israel and Hamas which has now entered into its third month. Mutually reinforcing traumas of both Palestinians and Israelis render this war ‘maximalist’ or almost zero-sum. This much is well-known and obvious. But there are broader ramifications and implications. These pertain to democracy and democratisation - two allied ideas and themes that trace their wellsprings to the Idea of the West. Concomitants and relates of western inspired modernity, it has been held, partly out of hubris and partly ignorance that both constitute the ‘endpoint’ of humankind’s political evolution and thereby history. The tone for this view was perhaps set by the great political scientist, the late Samuel Huntington and his ‘modernisation thesis’. The great scholar dwelt on the ‘Third Wave of Democratisation’ and held it to be an augury of the future. But we enter the third decade of the 21st century, there is a veritable ‘democratic recession’ on the anvil with ‘democratic backsliding’ taking place across the world.

Before exegeting on the thematic concern of this essay, a wee digression first: I do not aim to dwell on the reasons for ‘democratic recession’; neither am I making value-laden judgements on democracy itself. I have a far more limited point to make and adumbrate upon: the West’s almost missionary impulse and proselytisation about democracy. Is the West right about insisting upon democracy as the panacea for the non-West? If it is, does it stand morally and ethically qualified to do so?

In the war between Palestinians and Israelis lies most of the answer. This war has polarised world opinion, more stridently in the Western world. One immediate recall of this is the strident and poignant calls for ceasefire between Palestinians and Israel. Massive demonstrations have taken place across the Western world supporting the ceasefire. But no major government that has given unqualified support to Israel has even budged. In fact, the United States even vetoed a proposal for the same. Now the point I would like to make is inferential (but very valid): if those in power in the Western world owe and derive their power from the vox (people), then legislation and policy must reflect the distilled essence of the preferences of the very same people. On the proverbial ground, however, what is observed is that to quell these protests two prongs are employed: one is the policing power of the states and two discursive power of the media to decry these (sometimes). At the levels of legislation and policy, there is zero traction. My question (as naïve as it may sound) is: Is this democracy?

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Two, mainstream Western media, either because of being wedded to ‘convention’ or ‘convention plus ideology’ chooses to put an interpretative grid on events that cannot said to be ‘objective’. Moreover, any dissenting view that goes against their respective news and editorial slants and stances are not given space. But power, privilege and interest as defined by conventional media is privileged. If media or the Fourth Estate is the guard rail of democracy, is not it failing this basic ‘acid test?

Third, at a more prosaic but nonetheless important level of analysis, if democracy loosely correlates with justice or fairness or ‘Justice as fairness’, which Western country can claim to be the society that emblematises this? ‘Facts’ suggest that in this regard a great elision takes place where contradictions are justified either with parsimonious explanations or ‘economics’ is employed as a justificatory premise. Instead of the ‘rule of law’, there appears to be ‘rule by lawyers’. By this I mean the very prosaic but very elemental fact that deprives many from access to justice let alone the tenets of justice. Consider a hypothetical illustration here. A student on an immigrant visa in a Western country falls foul of staff in his/her university. The staff member does not like the cut of her or his jib. Now ‘rules being rules’ – that is both subjective and objective or open to interpretation - and where hypothetical staff member can use his/her power and discretion to nullify the student’s studentship in the sense of enrolment at the uni.

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This has immigration implications. If the student’s immigration status is hampered, effectively he/she does not have any real redress and his/her life is effectively ruined. This holds not only for outsiders to a Western society but its insiders in an 'n' number of permutations and combinations. In essence then if a native of a Western society especially from a socio-economic class that is not privileged and falls foul of the law, effectively he/she has no real and effective means of redressal. He/she has to live with the injustice. If the West’s ‘rule of law’ dictum falls short, not merely of the ideal but also in utilitarian terms, then how can the West use this dictum and lecture the non west?

Arguably, with respect to the latter, it can be said no society is perfect and dismiss this argument on utilitarian grounds with the caveat that ‘things are getting better’. Even if this explanation is accepted, what about the voice of the people, law, legislation and public and foreign policy? And what about the ‘sentinel of democracy’, the media? In terms of people, legislation and policy, if the war between Israel and Palestinians is employed as an illustrative example then the question is whether foreign policy drives domestic policy or vice versa? If it is the former, then again democracy stands implicated. And if media is instead of educating the public ‘manufacturing consent’ then the Fourth Estate is failing. This obviously constitutes another failure of democracy. The point to note is that these egregious failures are not happening in Africa or Asia but in the crucible and centre of gravity of democracy, the West.

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These then are moral and ethical failures. And if these hold, then the West has forfeited any claim – proselytizing or otherwise – to preach about democracy to the non-West. Now all this does not actually implicate democracy, in principle, but surely in practice. The obvious corollary here is that before looking outward the West must look inward and within. That is, it must set its house in order first.

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The foregoing discussion is not an idle exercise in frivolity. I, the author of this essay, have vantage points on the issues delineated: I have earned this perch and vantage point. What has accrued, in the main is the synthesis between reason, rationality and tradition. I do not owe this to any university or an academic setting; it is my ‘blood and sweat’, so to speak that has gone into the making of these. The thematic concern of this essay is then an important and significant issue - fraught with consequences and implications for both the West and the world at large. All of us need to think and introspect - more so the West!

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)