POLITICS
A Post-Covid Democracy Last year will forever be the year of coronavirus, a cataclysmic event that has had devastating public health and economic consequences across the globe. Will it also be a year that changed the face of democracy?
Lockdowns, the policing of private activities and the use of digital surveillance tools in certain countries for contact-tracing, may be seen as eroding some of the basic tenets of democracy. Having set a precedent for curtailing liberties, one might argue the bar has been lowered for doing so in the future.
For those who have grown up in democratic systems, it’s hard to imagine they might be vulnerable. But the rise of homegrown populist and nationalist movements, as well as external interference from authoritarian actors, were already putting democracy under stress. The pandemic, however, has created a new kind of stress. Democratic decision making, the safety of elections and the reliability of science and information, are all being brought into question, threatening our current system of governance.
Voting is vital to democracy. However, COVID-19 has made maintaining the integrity of free and fair elections especially challenging. While Europe and the world were in their first lockdown, elections were modified, postponed and cancelled in light of the health risk. Campaigns and conventions were forced to go virtual, limiting traditional canvassing efforts and in-person rallies. And as campaigning, and politics generally, becomes more social media-based, susceptibility to the siren calls of populists or nationalists increase, making civil disAccording to American political scientist Larry Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: a politi- course harder. cal system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of The U.K. government’s scientific advisory group underthe people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; proteclined from the start of the pandemic the importance of tion of the human rights of all citizens; and the rule of maintaining public trust; without which, democracies law, a system in which laws and procedures apply equal- can’t survive. However, a series of mishaps and policy ly to all citizens. errors undermined faith in government. This coincided with a rise in misinformation and fake news on social media, which preys on confusion and mistrust. Moving forward, the big question will be how to cope with and ensure resilience against these disinformation operations. Despite all of these challenges, we can say that by and large, democracy has resisted the Covid-19 stress test. We’ve seen this in a number of countries, most recently with the ultimately peaceful transition of power in the U.S. German federalism allowed for effective state specific responses to the pandemic; France and Italy’s oppoFor one thing, the pandemic has amplified governmental sition parties played a key role in critically addressing power. With rampant infections, an overwhelmed health government policy choices; and the U.K. was able to encare system and a deepening economic recession, politi- sure democratic continuity even after Prime Minister Bocal leaders have resorted to previously unthinkable poli- ris Johnson was diagnosed with Covid-19. However, the cies. In Hungary and Turkey, governments (already inchallenges posed by lockdown restrictions, the move in clined toward authoritarianism) used the pandemic to some countries to digitalise voting and the constant consolidate power even further. But even in more mature spread of misinformation, suggests that the resilience of democracies, personal liberties -- such as freedom of democratic regimes cannot be taken for granted. movement, freedom of enterprise, and freedom of assembly -- have been severely restricted in ways that make many uncomfortable. Sasha Rozanov, Year 12, Nugent House
