Is the world seeing the beginning of the end for liberal democracy? Is this the end of the political ideology and form of government characterized by fair, free and competitive elections; separation of powers; the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society; equal protection for all individuals of human rights, civil liberties and political freedoms?
Liberal democracy is under attack from both the Left and the Right. China believes that it will be the leader in a new world order. But, recently, after Trump’s inauguration, the People’s Daily, the flagship paper of the Communist Party of China wrote that democracy has reached its limits, and deterioration is the inevitable future of capitalism. Quoting Mao Zedong, the newspaper said that the ultimate defeat of capitalism would enable Communism to emerge victorious.
The People’s Daily wrote: “ The emergence of capitalism’s social crisis is the most updated evidence to show the superiority of socialism and Marxism...Western style democracy used to be a recognized power in history to drive social development. But now it has reached its limits...Democracy is already kidnapped by the capitals and has become the weapon for capitalists to chase profits.”
On the other side, liberal democracy is now being seriously threatened by the rise of populism. Democracy was conceived to be a representative government that would represent the interests of all sectors of the citizenry.
Populism is a political philosophy that supports the “rights and power of the people” in their struggle against the elites. Populism rises when the general populace is frustrated with their perceived inability to influence legislation and government. Populist leaders will take an anti-establishment message and rally the people with promises that the movement will address the wrongs committed against them by the ruling class.
Donald Trump’s clear message is that America First refers to putting the interests of the average American whose “voices have not been heard before.” The one difference I can discern is that liberal democracy believes that every individual has rights that must be protected. Populism, on the other hand, believes that government must protect the “greater good” even if it means sacrificing the rights of the minority.
China, therefore, suppresses all forms of dissent in Hong Kong supposedly for the ‘greater good.” Donald Trump is willing to violate the civil rights of the Muslim minority to ensure the safety of the majority. In the Philippines, there are those who insist that the drug menace has become so widespread that certain legal “short cuts” are justified. The only danger, which the government has realized, is that these “short cuts” can lead to abuses.
History repeats itself
But why the rise of leaders like Putin, Trump, Xi Jinping and an increasing number of populists on the Left and the Right. Are these people really transforming society? Or are they simply the product of the environment that is happening all over the world?
The rise of income inequality and the callousness of the elite in addressing these issues are the immediate causes. This is not the first time this has happened in the history of the world.
The Industrial Revolution happened between 1750 and 1914 in three phases. It is said that we are going through a similar Technological Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a period of transition from hand production to machines. During this period historic inventions were made – machinery, penicillin, steam engine, electricity, telephone, steel, machine tools, automobile, airplane among many other inventions.
There is no question that the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new era of economic growth and global trade. There was unprecedented wealth for the new elite that profited from the Industrial Revolution. Some family names that symbolized the wealth of the era were Rockefeller, Rothschild, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Mellon and Ford.
But industrialization had a severe impact on the mass of people. Millions of people lost their jobs as production shifted from craftsmanship to mass production. In the new wage economy, workers had nothing to survive on but their labor. Most industrial workers lived in great hardship barely meeting their subsistence needs as wages were kept low and prices rose. Crisis such as illness and old age brought misery to these workers. Children as young as ages 10 – 14 were put to work to contribute to the family income.
It was only a matter of time before the working classes would rebel. The first populist movements were those who tried to stop industrializatio like the Luddite movement composed of workers who had lost their jobs and tried to destroy machines. They became so strong the army had to protect factories. Its leaders were caught and hanged.
The most extreme and popular reaction, was the rise of Marxism or Communism. Marx and Engels, 19th century authors of the Communist Manifesto, felt the Industrial Revolution was to blame for the oppression of the working class poor who lived in slums and worked in dangerous working conditions. Rather than stop industrialization, the Communist Manifesto advocated that the working class will rise up in revolution against the property owning capitalists.
Eventually the liberal democracies countered the Communist threat by introducing drastic reforms like giving workers the right to organize and providing safety nets like minimum wages, maximum working hours, safe working conditions and social welfare benefits.
Today, we are seeing again that income inequality has widened; and, the elites have continued to reduce the bargaining power of labor and refused to give workers a living wage. The last time this happened, the poor revolted in countries like Russia and China, populism won in European countries and several world wars erupted. Will history repeat itself?
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