{"id":6374,"date":"2013-08-27T14:10:32","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2013-08-27T14:10:32","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T21:10:32","slug":"democracys-dog-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democracys-dog-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy’s Dog Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We all want democracy to thrive and flourish, but can it?<\/p>\n

The Obama administration was quite pleased that the anti-democratic Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood had come to power through a single plebiscite. That confidence required a great deal of moral blindness, both of the present and past.<\/p>\n

Like other once-elected authoritarians who believe that democracy is similar to a bus route \u2014 in the words of Mr. Erdogan of Turkey, once you get to your stop, you get off \u2014 Morsi had no intention of fostering the sort of consensual institutions so necessary for republican government. Almost immediately he gave a de facto green light to cleanse the government of his opponents, to Islamicize a once largely secular society, and to persecute religious minorities.<\/p>\n

Like a Hitler, Mussolini, Mugabe, or Hugo Chavez, Morsi was counting on the legitimacy from a once-in-a-lifetime largely free election, and then the use of state power, if not terror, to institutionalize his authoritarian rule. Morsi\u2019s legacy is that he was both a beneficiary of the Arab Spring in Egypt and almost singlehandedly ended it.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there seem to be no signs of democracy\u2019s revival elsewhere in the Arab world or, for that matter, all that many recent vibrant examples in the world at large these days.<\/p>\n

In contrast, after the end of the Cold War there was a giddy \u201cend of history\u201d moment. By the new millennium, \u201cdemocratic\u201d government and free market capitalism were accepted as the natural \u2014 indeed, the foreordained \u2014 final stage in civilization\u2019s evolution. And why not? The Soviet Union was in shambles. Eastern Europe was democratizing. Latin American democracies were starting to crowd out both communist and right-wing dictatorships. The European Union was ushering in the euro to self-congratulatory proclamations of a new social democratic heaven on Earth. The betting was when, not if, a newly capitalist China democratized. Bill Clinton, under duress, had moved America to the democratic center, and was helping to balance budgets.<\/p>\n

Only the Islamic Middle East resisted the supposedly inevitable democratic urge. As the world\u2019s regional holdout, the region was seen as well overdue for its turn at majority rule. Democratization, we Americans argued, might force the Muslim world to emulate those consensual systems with far better records of stable governance and widespread prosperity. With freedom and affluence, the age-old Middle East pathologies \u2014 misogyny, religious intolerance, tribalism, fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and statism \u2014 would fade along with terrorist-driven violence. Or so it was thought.<\/p>\n

Now, in the second decade of the new millennium, democracy is not just having a rough time, but failing in a way that its harsh critics so often predicted, from Plato to Nietzsche and Spengler.<\/p>\n

Often the recent world confused plebiscites with democracy, as if the two were synonymous.<\/p>\n

But does anyone think the once-elected Mr. Morsi in Egypt was a true democrat? Are the Iranian elections reflections of a free society? Were the austerity packages imposed on southern Europe part of a constitutional process? Is a Germany or Netherlands encouraged to hold elections about the fate of their participation in the EU? Does a Mr. Erdogan or Mr. Ortega \u2014 or did the late Hugo Chavez \u2014 operate within transparent and lawful protocols?<\/p>\n

Instead, southern Europe is reeling, the result of the proverbial people voting themselves entitlements and perks that the state could not pay for. In the fashion of the fourth century Athenian\u00a0d\u00eamos<\/i>, pensioners, the subsidized, and public employees blame almost everyone and everything else for their own self-inflicted miseries.<\/p>\n

The European Union avoids national referenda in fear that democratic and open elections would lead the EU to unravel. Instead, the EU in large part is reduced to appealing to German war guilt, to German mercantile self-interest, and to German philanthropy to subsidize much of a failed Mediterranean Europe.<\/p>\n

Westernized democratic societies \u2014 Europe in particular \u2014 are shrinking. The bounty of free market capitalism, the emancipation of women, technological advances, and the non-judgmentalism of egalitarian democracy have all emphasized enjoying the good life rather than the sacrifices of child-raising. The result is a demographic time bomb of a dwindling and aging population.<\/p>\n

Here in the United States, we are engaged in a great struggle to save constitutional democracy as we once knew it. President Obama seems intent \u2014 by ignoring enforcement of existing statutes, by piling up record debt, by vastly enlarging the size of the federal government, by expanding the money supply, by enabling unprecedented numbers of Americans to enroll in food stamp, disability, unemployment, and various entitlement programs, and by politicizing federal institutions from the Justice Department to the IRS \u2014 on creating an \u201cequality of result\u201d society. The aim of making everyone about the same is seen as justifying the illiberal means necessary to achieve them.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberty\u201d is now a word that earns an IRS audit. \u201cFairness\u201d is proof of one\u2019s patriotism. It is as if the failed and violent French Revolution, not the successful American alternative, is now the inspirational model.<\/p>\n

In short, democracy\u2019s culture worldwide is in crisis. It cannot pay its bills. It chafes at constitutional protections of individual rights and expression. It seems to encourage rather than to mitigate racial and class tensions. It offers\u00a0more entitlements to a growing aging cohort and less opportunity for a shrinking younger population to pay for them. It appears unable to offer non-democratic societies moral and ethical models.<\/p>\n

Most cannot decide whether the democracies are plagued with a particularly poor generation of demagogic leaders, or whether we are suffering the inevitable wages of rule by plebiscite that eats away at constitutional law and prefers executive fiat. What Jefferson and Tocqueville thought might save us from the mob-rule of ancient Athens \u2014 the independent agrarian and small autonomous businessperson anchoring checks and balances to 51% majority rule and demagogues \u2014 is no longer our ideal.<\/p>\n

I offer a modest suggestion amidst our current angst. Let us put a moratorium on the use of the word \u201cdemocracy\u201d altogether in our lectures about the Arab Spring and promoting Western values. Cease using it, given that the word has lost all currency and has regressed to its root Hellenic demagogic meaning of \u201cpeople power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people simply do not appreciate the complex constitutional system that democracy\u2019s modern incarnation is supposed to represent, and prefer to equate democracy with what on any given day the majority is said to want \u2014 which is almost always a state-mandated equality and a redistribution of wealth \u2014 or a way to implement authoritarianism. In the Middle East, an election without a ratified constitution and the rule of law is a prescription for tyranny.<\/p>\n

Instead, let us speak of \u201cconsensual government\u201d or \u201cconstitutional government,\u201d and emphasize \u201crepublicanism.\u201d Our goal, to the degree we wish to offer advice abroad to reformers abroad, would be to encourage illiberal states to form \u201crepresentative\u201d or \u201cconstitutional republics,\u201d where the will of the people is expressed through representatives who themselves are subject to constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Limited or consensual government should be our sloganeering overseas and at home. The great lesson of the Obama administration is that the abuses of democratic plebiscites abroad are not contrasted, but\u00a0amplified<\/i>\u00a0by the increasingly lawless American model, when it uses the IRS and the Justice Department to go after political opponents, allows senior officials to lie under oath to the Congress, and fails to execute faithfully those laws passed by the legislative branch. If we are to offer America as a model, then there must be some honesty and transparency about the Benghazi, Associated Press, IRS, and NSA scandals.<\/p>\n

In the latter 20th century, we got our wish and saw much of the world adopt Western democratic trajectories. It is now our challenge in the early 21st century to ensure that they were not given a bill of goods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media We all want democracy to thrive and flourish, but can it? The Obama administration was quite pleased that the anti-democratic Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood had come to power through a single plebiscite. That confidence required a great deal of moral blindness, both of the present and past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[117],"tags":[12,115,1034,1049,139,1043,1041,1056],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1EO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":176,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democracy-promotion-or-islamist-promotion\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":0},"title":"Democracy Promotion or Islamist Promotion?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thronton Frontpage Magazine The hope that democracy would bloom in Egypt following our collusion in removing Hosni Mubarak looks more and more delusional every day. Even our foreign policy wishful thinkers are no longer peddling the canard that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is \u201csecular\u201d and \u201cmoderate,\u201d thus proving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6321,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-return-of-al-qaeda-and-jihad\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":1},"title":"The Return of Al Qaeda and Jihad","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine With the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, al-Qaeda has been vindicated and the terror-jihad exonerated, in the opinion of many Islamists, that is. According to the\u00a0Associated Press, in a new video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri \u201csaid the military coup that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-terror-leader-behind-bars-in-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":2},"title":"A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine The supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the Islamist snake, Muhammad Badie\u2014who had slipped security forces by traveling in and out of the\u00a0Brotherhood torture camps\u00a0(known as \u201cpeaceful sits ins\u201d by the mainstream media\u201d)\u2014has finally been arrested in Egypt and is awaiting trial.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6341,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/egyptians-enraged-by-u-s-outreach-to-muslim-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":3},"title":"Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0PJ Media In the eyes of tens of millions of Egyptians, Senators John McCain\u2019s and Lindsey Graham\u2019s recent words and deeds in Egypt\u2014which have the \u201cblessing\u201d of President Obama\u2014have unequivocally proven that U.S. leadership is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian media is awash with stories of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":675,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-evils-of-the-muslim-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":4},"title":"The Evils of the Muslim Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Investigative Project on Terrorism Egypt's longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood \u2014 the parent organization of nearly every subsequent Islamist movement, including al Qaeda \u2014 has just won the nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That apathy reigns in the international community, when once such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6351,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/murbaraks-muslim-brotherhood-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6374,"position":5},"title":"Murbarak’s Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Gatestone Institute In a\u00a0video of Hosni Mubarak\u00a0when he was still Egypt\u2019s president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood have come to pass.\u00a0 What follows are Mubarak\u2019s words from a conference in Egypt (date unknown; author\u2019s translation): So they [Brotherhood and affiliates] took advantage of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6375,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions\/6375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}