The democratic drift: political malaise in the age of democracy

[...]if the narrative of the twentieth century, which the historian Eric Hobsbawm described as the "age of extremes", was dominated by dictators - not just Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, but also the likes of Idi Amin, Jean-Bédel Bokasa, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Jorge Videla,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOpenDemocracy (London)
Main Author Lehmann, Jean-Pierre
Format Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London OpenDemocracy 30.07.2014
Subjects
Age
Democracy
Dictators
Inequality
Politics
Vietnam
South Korea
China
France
India
Indonesia
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Summary:[...]if the narrative of the twentieth century, which the historian Eric Hobsbawm described as the "age of extremes", was dominated by dictators - not just Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, but also the likes of Idi Amin, Jean-Bédel Bokasa, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Jorge Videla, Rafael Trujillo, Mao Zedong, to name only a very few among the very many - then the twenty-first century may well be the age of democracy. The US political process is in gridlock; in France, the president has beaten all records with an 18 percent approval rating; widespread dissatisfaction and serious risks of social unrest in Brazil emerged during the World Cup and may return to disrupt the Olympics; the Arab spring, with the exception of Tunisia, seems a forlorn hope; Zuma is a very distant cry from Mandela; Russian democracy has been hijacked by Putin; the legacy of Chavez lingers with Maduro.
Bibliography:ObjectType-News-1
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ISSN:1476-5888