This is a 10 page summary of Yascha Mounks 'The People vs Democracy.' Mounk essentially talks about how society has become disillusioned with politics which has created a space for authoritarianism to rise, he says that democracy is in a crisis. Today we live in liberal democracies, but the mutual ...
Yascha Mounk. The People vs. Democracy Reading summary
- 2: Losing our illusions: citizens have long been disillusioned with politics, now they
feel restless, authoritarian populists are on the rise & voters are fed up with the
system of liberal democracy itself.
- Trump’s election has been the most striking manifestation of democracy’s crisis.
- 3: we are going through a populist movement; the question is whether this populist
moment will turn into a populist age
- One reason for liberal democracy’s triumph is that there was no coherent alternative
to it.
- Francis Fukuyama argued that the conclusion of the Cold War would lead to “the end
point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal
democracy as the final form of human government.” - “The end of history”
- 4: characteristics of a stable democracy: a high level of wealth and education; a
vibrant civil society and ensuring the neutrality of key state institutions like the
judiciary; Major political forces had to accept that they should let voters, rather than
the might of military or economic corruption, determine political outcomes. All these
goals proved elusive. It was thought that once the key benchmarks of democracy
were attained, the political system would be stable but recent events call this
democratic self- confidence into question.
- 5: sinking attachment to democracy = making Americans open to authoritarianism
- radically changed circumstances The first big assumption of the post-war era—the
idea that rich countries in which the government had repeatedly changed hands
through free and fair elections would forever remain democratic has stood on shaky
ground.
- 6: Liberalism & democracy= letting the people decide and protecting individual rights
- On the contrary, the mutual dependence of liberalism and democracy shows how
quickly dysfunction in one aspect of our politics can breed dysfunction in another=
democracy without rights (tyranny of the majority) and rights without democracy
(political system turns into a playground for billionaires and technocrats)
- 7: trump's threat can be understood in a wider context: that of the farright populists
who have been gaining strength in every major democracy
- If the political problems of our time are so easy to fix, why do they persist? populists
are unwilling to admit that the real world might be complicated, they outsiders.
- 8: This worldview breeds two political desires: 1. populists claim, an honest leader
who shares the outlook of the people and is willing to fight on their behalf needs to
win high office; 2. Once this leader is in charge, he needs to abolish the institutional
roadblocks that might stop him from carrying out the will of the people.
- Liberal democracies = checks and balances to stop one party from amassing too
much power and to reconcile the interests of different groups.
- populists are deeply democratic: they believe that the demos should rule. But they
are also deeply illiberal, saying that neither independent institutions nor individual
rights should dampen the people’s voice.
- 9: to consolidate their power: tensions with perceived enemies at home and abroad;
packed courts and electoral commissions with their cronies; took control of the media
- 10 :E.g. Hungary: Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party who vows that democracy should be
hierarchical rather than liberal. Hierarchical democracy allows popularly elected
, leaders to enact the will of the people as they interpret it, without having to make
allowances for minorities.
- 11: The rise of illiberal democracy is one side of politics, ordinary people = sceptical
of liberal practices and institutions, and elites have tried to insulate themselves from
their anger. The world is complicated, and they have worked hard to find the right
answers.
- The Great Recession in Greece = vast amount of debt. Technocrats in Brussels
decided that for the European monetary system to survive, Greece would suffer.
- 12: Then Tsipras was elected & had two options: capitulate to the demands of the
technocrats or lead Greece into economic chaos. Called a referendum, rejected the
deal, technocracy prevailed. The politics of the Eurozone= example of a political
system in which people feel as though they have less say over what happens
- 13: Hungary and Greece are two sides of the same coin. The preferences of the
people are increasingly illiberal: voters are growing impatient with independent
institutions and less willing to tolerate the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. On
the other hand, elites are making the political system unresponsive: the powerful are
less willing to cede to the views of the people. As a result, liberalism and democracy
are starting to come into conflict.
- 14: views of the people=illiberal; preferences of elites=undemocratic
- 15: If we do not understand what made things happen in the past, then we can’t
assume that they’ll keep happening in the future. Was the past stability of democracy
brought about by conditions that are no longer in place?
- There are striking constants that characterized democracy since its founding but are
no longer true today:
- During the period of democratic stability, most citizens enjoyed a rapid increase in
their living standards, but recently it has been flat.
- Citizens never especially liked politicians, yet they trusted elected officials and that
their lives would keep getting better as a result. Today trust and optimism =
evaporated. Citizens have grown deeply anxious about the future and have started to
see politics as a zero sum game—one in which any gain for immigrants or ethnic
minorities will come at their expense.
- history of democratic stability, one racial or ethnic group has been dominant.
- 16: Decades of mass migration and social activism = radically transformed societies.
Part of the population welcomes change; another feels threatened and resentful. As
a result, a vast rebellion against ethnic and cultural pluralism.
- Until recently, mass communication remained the exclusive preserve of political and
financial elites, but the rise of the internet and social media has rapidly shifted the
power balance between political insiders and political outsiders. As the technological
gap between centre and periphery has narrowed, the instigators of instability have
won an advantage.
- We need to act on at least three fronts:
- 17: First, we need to reform economic policy to temper inequality and live up to the
promise of rising living standards. It is a question of political stability. We need to
figure out how the nation state can take control of its own fate.
- Second, we need to rethink what membership and belonging might mean in a
modern nation state. The promise of multi-ethnic democracy is non-negotiable and
we must emphasize what unites rather than what divides.
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