Post photo: Trump supporters shortly before storming the US Capitol | © Tyler Merbler on flickr
In this weblog post I address the threats to democracy on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, this danger became apparent during the presidency of Donald Trump clearly visible. The indescribable climax was reached with the storming of the congress on January 6, 2021. The current state of affairs will only be known after the 2022 and 2024 elections.
A look at Europe: In some EU member states - especially in Poland and Hungary - a gradual process of the erosion of democracy is underway, as the two political scientists explain Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt described in their book How Democracies Die. Here, too, the elections in Poland in 2022 and in Hungary in 2023 will show the current state of affairs.
Democracy in danger – on both sides of the Atlantic
Democracy is a fragile structure made up of written norms and unwritten principles and attitudes in politics, state and society. The essential principles include fair and free elections, separation of powers -- the Americans talk about checks and balances -- an independent judiciary and informed and interested citizens -- to name just a few keywords.
Developments in Germany around 1933 showed how quickly a democratic state can be “dealt with” when the Weimar Republic was razed within a short space of time through the interplay of legal means and brute force. It is remarkable what friends from the USA tell me and compare the current developments there with what happened around 1933 in Germany.
But it is not only in the United States that a struggle for democracy, free elections and against autocratic tendencies has flared up. There are also diligent imitators in Europe Donald Trumps for whom an independent judiciary, the rule of law, freedom of the press and the protection of minority rights are seen as unnecessary. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban added the term “illiberal democracy” to his vocabulary. Poland and Hungary do not want to accept decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). However, if EU member states refuse to accept fines imposed by the ECJ, then it is not about the money but about the legal foundations of the European Union. A country in which the majority in parliament passes a law that pours ideology into norms and invokes “democracy” is far from being a model democracy.
American political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write in her book "How democracies die"
“Many of these government moves to erode democracy are 'legal' in the sense that they are sanctioned by the legislature and approved by the courts. You can even use it as an effort Strengthening of democracy are presented, which aim, for example, to make the judiciary more efficient, to fight corruption or to make the electoral process more transparent.
...
The erosion of democracy is happening so imperceptibly that many are unaware.”
Steven Levitsky / Daniel Ziblatt, "How democracies die“, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt Munich, 2018
The New York Times reports that to date, 19 US states have passed 33 laws designed to make voting harder and more complicated. The initiators of these laws are concerned with keeping African-American, Hispanic and non-white voters out of the polls and thereby securing majorities for the Republicans, who identify themselves as a party of conservative whites, the "traditions", the " "good old days" of the "American Dream" and freedom and democracy. The African-American journalist Charles Blow writes in the New York Times of the beginning of the "era of repression" - if Congress does not intervene (nytimes.com, 17.10.21/XNUMX/XNUMX: "Last Chance to Save American Democracy").
Developments that give cause for concern
On both sides of the Atlantic -- in Europe and in the United States -- there are developments that give cause for concern about the survival of democracy. In the USA, the fight for the free and democratic constitution of the state in the presidency of Donald Trump reached a climax. But even after Trump was voted out, there was no all-clear. Trump still has the Republican Party -- "his" party -- firmly in his grip. These disputes are not least about the issue of "violence in politics" in the United States. The New York Times recently published a detailed report on this issue.
A wave of threats of violence has swept over school board members and public health workers; hundreds have resigned from their posts. Even in Congress in Washington, the number of cases of threats of violence is expected to double this year.
Such observations are not uncommon on this side of the Atlantic either. In recent years, however, there has been a very specific development in the United States: during the Trump era, the acceptance of violence and the loudest voices about it came from the highest levels of government, from the middle of a specific party and from influential parts of society. “From the early beginnings of his campaign to the end of his presidency, the possibility of the use of force was part of his political image. He encouraged those attending his rallies to "beat the hell up" on protesters; he praised an MP who physically assaulted a reporter and in a recent interview (January 6, 2021) defended the rioters who “hang Mike Pence(nytimes.com, 12.11.21/XNUMX/XNUMX: "Menace Enters the Republican Mainstream").
Increasing threats of violence against politicians and growing violence in society can also be observed in European countries. However, other developments give cause for concern about the democratic system in Europe. A number of EU Member States are systematically undermining the cornerstones of democracy, such as an independent judiciary. The EU Commission, as guardian of the European Treaties, recently applied to the ECJ to impose a penalty payment on Hungary because the country has so far not responded adequately to a court judgment of December 2020. The ECJ found that Hungary's restrictive asylum system violates EU law (Heilbronner Voice, November 13.11.21, XNUMX: "Compulsory payment against Hungary"). Should the ECJ impose financial sanctions, it is to be feared that Hungary -- similar to Poland recently -- will refuse to pay.
In other words: the ECJ as the highest judicial body in the European Union is not recognised. The task and function of the court are laid down in the Treaty of Lisbon. Negotiations at the political level as to whether and how a ECJ judgment can or cannot be implemented -- for example in the European Council of Heads of State and Government -- are inconceivable. Sooner or later there has to be a showdown, otherwise democracy in the EU will be at stake.
Free and fair elections - a key element of democracy
We experienced free and fair elections in Germany on 26.9.21/XNUMX/XNUMX and there will probably be a change of power. Nobody talked about fraud or counterfeiting, like e.g Donald Trump and his party in the US. The election result is also recognized by the election losers. No one had to take to the streets to protest the election result, as in Belarus, for example, where the regime of Alexander Lukashenko had the opposition demonstrations brutally clubbed down. In the EU member states Hungary and Poland there will be elections in 2022 and 2023 respectively. It will be interesting and necessary to see how the current governing parties deal with the opposition before and after the elections. In both countries there is hope that the current governments will be voted out and both countries will return to the European course. It is time that the perennial issue of the rule of law could be removed from the list of the European Union's internal problems.
