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Why Democracy is Its Own Worst Enemy?



Author(s)

Cristiano Cabrita

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2017.08.005

The challenges that lay ahead for democracy are so serious that few political scientists have the courage to risk their reputation and pin down with relative accuracy what will happen on a 5/10/15 year basis. As a matter of fact, when the term “democracy” and “enemy” is used in the same sentence there’s a natural and immediate tendency—for those who are lucky enough to live in electoral democracies—to look over the fence and not to our own backyard. That is to say, democracy’s enemies, our enemies, are some sort of mythological creatures that live far away from our perfect democratic bubble. This reasoning can be in part seen in the on-going debate about democracy’s struggle against its external enemies. During the Cold War period democracy was at “war” with communism and, before that, with national-socialism and fascism. Currently, democracy faces new enemies: global authoritarianism,international terrorism, religious extremism, and Islamic fundamentalism. This thoughtfulness is only partly true. At least it’s not the only reason why we are debating this matter today. According to this paper, and that’s precisely part of the problem, democracy is to some extent its own worst enemy. Why? Because most of the issues that we’re debating today are a result of a certain apathy and disentanglement of liberal democracies around the world in the last decade.

democracy, global authoritarianism, liberal democracies, decline