Democracy and Dissatisfaction
Journal Title: Journal of Globalization Studies - Year 2011, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
The global spread of elections (frequently free and sometimes fair) and the universal acceptance of the language of human rights have become the distinctive feature of politics in the beginning of the new century. By 2005 for the first time in history, more than half of the world's population was living in democracies. However, the paradoxical outcome of the triumph of democracy is that two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall there is a growing dissatisfaction with the really existing democratic regimes and there is a growing sense of trouble in the house of freedom. This dissatisfaction is amplified by the challenge of the economically successful non-democratic regimes. Chinese postcommunist authoritarianism is in many ways more inventive and experiment friendly than post-communist democracies. The article analyzes strengths and weaknesses of the democracy, as well as some illusions associated with it. Democratic triumphalism of the last two decades is a real and present danger for our understanding of the challenges democracy faces today. The author concludes that democracies are not and cannot be ‘satisfaction machines’. Democracy's advantage over authoritarianism lies not in some inherent democratic ability to offer citizens instant gratification of their needs and desires, but rather in democracy's superior institutional and intellectual readiness to cope with the dissatisfaction produced by its citizens' choices. What democracies do offer dissatisfied citizens is the satisfaction of having the right to do something about their dissatisfaction. So, democracy is the political regime that fits best for the current age of dissatisfaction.
Authors and Affiliations
Ivan Krastev
Keywords
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