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In the past decade there's been a lot of Democratic Backsliding in various nations. Not just the United States but Turkey, Poland, Indonesia, Hungary and Brazil.
Overall liberal democracy is on the retreat since 2010.
But I wanted to ask.
Why?
Why has there been democratic backsliding this past decade?
See here:
https://theconversation.com/many-once-democratic-countries-continue-to-backslide-becoming-less-free-but-their-leaders-continue-to-enjoy-popular-support-206919
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/four-things-to-know-about-democratic-erosion
https://ucigcc.org/podcast/why-is-democratic-backsliding-on-the-rise/
https://www.economist.com/interactive/graphic-detail/2023/09/12/democratic-backsliding-seems-real-even-if-it-is-hard-to-measure
Is it that there's been a bunch of democratic backsliding or is it that we're just more aware that the idea of this "universal democracy" situation was more fictive than realistic?
I think after the USSR fell, there was this idea that "democracy has won" and there were more countries that were nominally democratic but in reality weren't actually or were incredibly shaky and now with the internet we're just more aware that the situation was more wishful thinking than real.
There's also the slight twist that most of those "new democracies" were pumped up by a very strong neoliberal tide that basically required them to sell themselves to US commercial interests and gut their social services via privatization and "shock therapy." Turns out, that's not a sustainable model and it created a lot of backlash against what was sold as "democracy" but was really just politically supported economic strip mining of these places by Western economic interests.
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That comes largely from the breakdown of the social contract that most democratic countries are implicitly founded on. Basically "you pay your taxes, follow the law, vote, and we'll make sure you have what you need to have a shot at a good life."
That contract, in the view of many people, has been broken so the elements of soft power that used to work are no longer effective. When soft power stops working, you need hard power to maintain control.
And hard power is just...simpler. You could induce people to follow your vision by carefully laying out a detailed plan and convincing stakeholders to throw in behind you or....just beat anyone who says "no." It's a lot simpler just to beat people until they listen to you.