"On Day One, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an Enemies List. When elected, I will walk in, with a To-Do list." - Kamala Harris, October 29, 2024
The English word democracy comes from the Greek word dēmokratía. Demos means the common people and kratos means strength. Democracy ain’t perfect, but it is worth fighting for.
The first problem with deciding on the fragility of democracy in the 21st century is coming up with an effective definition. Is it solely a process for selecting representatives and making decisions, or must it also include a commitment to “democratic values” and the rights of individuals.
European Enlightenment philosophers John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson never wrote about or used the term democracy, although Thomas Paine believed a representative democracy was a more efficient form of government than monarchy and aristocracy. James Madison feared that in a democracy the mass of people would be subject to manipulation and a nation risked decline into tyranny.
Writing in the 1830, Alexis De Tocqueville argued that democracy for the white majority in the United States rested firmly on the enslavement of Blacks and he believed as a democratic society it would never grant full equality to a racial, religious, or ethnic minority.
Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address is credited with the definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” but he did not use the word. Woodrow Wilson, in the early 20th century, was probably the first American President to describe the United States as a democracy. Winston Churchill is credited with the statement that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
In the 21st center, Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who has suppressed many of the civil liberties associated with a democratic society, describes his country as an “illiberal democracy.” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, who has a history of authoritarian behavior, made it clear that in his country “democracy is a means to an end.”
A number of historical figures have offered definitions of democracy, some of which are critical. Franklin Roosevelt argued “Democracy alone, of all forms of government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened will. It is human history.” Nelson Mandela, who led the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, wrote in his 1990 autobiography: “I have become more convinced than ever that the real makers of history are the ordinary men and women of our country; their participation in every decision about the future is the only guarantee of true democracy and freedom.” Adolf Hitler hated democracy. In Mein Kampf, he wrote, “Ideas such as ‘Democracy’ disintegrate our race consciousness, breed cowardice. It is a deceitful theory that all men are created equal.”
The victorious allies thought fascism, a combination of ultra-nationalism and militarism with an authoritarian government, was defeated during World War II. Yet in the 21st century there are neo-fascist movements in a number of the western democracies that feed on popular discontent with conditions in their countries and use the electoral process to grow in influence (France, Germany, and Italy) and sometimes to take power (Brazil and Hungary).
In a January 2018 op-ed column, Andrew Rawnsley, the chief political commentator for in the British newspaper The Guardian, argued that democracy was definitely at risk in the world today, but he did not believe it was doomed. In the essay, Rawnsley made four key points. For much of the 20th century democracy was triumphant; anti-democratic appeals to discontented populations have a basis in reality; it was a mistake “to think that this trend was so powerful it could not be reversed”; and recognizing that democracy is fragile may be necessary to ensure its survival.
There is also considerable debate amongst historians and political scientists over the definition of “fascism.” In How Fascism Works (Random House, 2018), Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale University, describes fascism as “ultranationalism of some variety (ethnic, religious, cultural) with the nation represented in the person of an authoritarian leader who speaks on its behalf.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1938 Message to Congress, argued that “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.” Both definitions seem apt descriptions of Trumpism and the MAGA movement.
