How Democracy Ends: Book Review: Financial Express August 5, 2018

In this rather engaging discourse, Runciman showcases how democracies ended in the earlier days, which is quite different from what happens today.

Donald Trump has probably become one of the most critiqued leaders in contemporary times. His election to the post of US President has been democratic, but the general opinion is that he can’t be controlled, and the majority does not seem to be with him on most of the decisions taken. Is this what democracy is all about? David Runciman, in this quite hard-hitting book titled How Democracy Ends, takes us through what goes on in this world and explains why leaders like Trump may not mean the end of democracy.

There are three threats to democracies according to the author. The first is coups, where governments are overthrown. The second is catastrophes, where the environment or nuclear warfare can spell the end of such systems. The third is technology, which enables those who have power of money to create opinion and then manipulate the people who elect them to power. Voters are often fooled into doing what the rulers want through the spread of misinformation. This has become more problematic today and is a danger for democracy.

In this rather engaging discourse, Runciman showcases how democracies ended in the earlier days, which is quite different from what happens today. Maybe some 50 years back, when there was dissatisfaction, there would be a coup to overthrow rulers who were misgoverning. This could be by the military or the opposition, which would invariably talk of restoring democracy after unseating the head. However, the truth would be that those taking over would use democracy to legitimise their own tenure. This happened in Greece when, in 1967, Andreas Papandreou was overthrown. However, when Greece went through tough times when the sovereign default took place and people took to the streets, we did not see a similar coup where the leader was displaced or thrown out.

For this, the author has an explanation. First, institutions now run in a different way and politics has changed, where debates and dissension take place in the Parliament or other official quarters and not on the roads. People do not wield daggers and guns, but slug it out with words in these confines in business suits. Therefore, there is civilised conversation and debate. Besides, most democracies in the western world are much better off today than they were in the past. The author goes through data to show that once the per capita income crosses $8,000 per annum, violent takeovers never happen. Also, the fact that the population has aged makes a difference. When there is a young population, there is a greater tendency to resort to more draconian means than when the population matures. This can also be deduced by looking at countries that have insurgencies, and which invariably always have low-income, high-unemployment and high-young population.

The current backlash against democracy is ironically happening in places that have firmly-placed democratic systems. People are disgruntled with situations that are ‘unresponsive’ not because they are ‘underdeveloped’. This is something which we in India would also identify with, as often we hear ourselves saying we need to change our system because democracy has not delivered. This can hold with the legislature, executive and judiciary, where things do not seem to be going by the commonly-held view on democracy. Political arguments from the opposition are normally in the areas of welfare state, constitution, economy, security or freedom. Each side wants to get back what it thinks it has lost, which creates what the author calls a ‘conspiracist’ mindset, where one starts blaming the other. In the US, it is put forward that the democrats stole constitutional freedom and the Republicans stole minority rights. In Europe, it is always the EU that stole British sovereignty. Such accusations are not uncommon these days.

There is a comparison between China and India, where the former runs the economy on market terms, where technocracy dominates. India is fully democratic, but has not achieved what China has since the process does not work as it should and the people’s will is not what comes from decisions taken at the top.

The author rightly points out that rising inequality is a pressing issue in democratic societies. In the Cold War days, such a system of distribution would be met with violence. But today, political systems can suppress such causes of violence without addressing the issue.

He argues that, invariably, we elect politicians who promise to shake up things because the show has come to mean nothing much, turning into a sterile performance. This does call for reflection, especially for rulers in democratic set-ups, as most countries that are not democratic do crave such freedom. However, once democracy sets in, the final picture always seems very different from what was expected, which leads to a certain modicum of disappointment. This is definitely a thought-provoking treatise on democracy, as is professed today across the world.