With a lot of media attention focused on the American competition between a senile old man and a criminal megalomaniac it is worth noting that 2024 is probably the greatest ever year for Democracy. Across the globe elections are being held in almost 100 nations which are home to half the global population. By coincidence this includes 8 of the 10 most populous nations: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan round out a full house for the Indian sub-continent. Brazil, Mexico and the USA are the big 3 of the Americas. Indonesia occupies one eighth of the planet. And although we don’t rate it as a functioning democracy Russia also had an election.
True democracy is hard work. It is a delicate flower to be nurtured by a voting public who need to engage actively in politics. If we get lazy and fail to hold our representatives to account we have seen time and time again that power corrupts. Before you realize what happened you have another Il Duce or Hitler in power.
In many nations the complexity and compromises that come with complex coalitions seem impossible to grasp. Strongmen leaders or strong government parties actively warn their populations against the perception of weakness and confusion that comes with proportional representation and coalition government. We who live with PR and Coalition know that government partners are healthy because they hold each other to account. The USA and Britain operate first past the post voting systems which almost guarantee that the elected representative is rejected by the majority of voters in their constituency. Is that truly democracy?
The nations of the European Union voted for the EU parliament and even the ex-EU member Britain has a general election this year where the party who took them out of the EU are expected to be gutted at the polls. The ruling party in France also called a surprise general election in an attempt to hamstring the gains made by the far right.
In Ireland in addition to the European Union MEPs we also voted in our local elections to appoint representatives to our town and county councils. With a trio of parties ruling a coalition goverment which must announce an election by 2025 at the latest there is widespread expectation that we will see a snap general election this year. Two of the party leaders have already resigned; Leo Varadkar from Fine Gael and Eamon Ryan from the Greens. The budget will be delivered in October and the government has some leeway to put a positive spin on finances. In the world of politics where a week is a long time it would be foolish not to leverage the opportunity and bask in the positivity of a give-away budget.
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