Democratic Backsliding Reaches Western Democracies, U.S. Decline "Unprecedented"(www.v-dem.net)

69 pointsby geox8 hours ago5 comments

kelseyfrog6 hours ago
At the same time democratic backsliding [1] occurs in cycles. We're probably not at a low point, but that doesn't mean it's permanent.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_backsliding
noshitsherlock2 hours ago
I don't think Trump is the cause, but he's an opportunist stepping into a vacuum that has developed over a lengthy period of time.
alex435787 hours ago
[flagged]
- digitalPhonix7 hours ago
  > an administration deliberately failing to enforce immigration laws
  What civil liberties are being eroded there?
  (I do agree that poor handling of the pandemic normalised the removal of civil liberties)
  - alex435787 hours ago
    The article points to “undercutting institutionalized checks and balances”, along with the deterioration of rule of law as issues - broader than civil liberties.
    Article 2, section 3: “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”
    wredcoll6 hours ago
    What is the correct term for this kind of bad faith attempt at seeming logical while at the same time being utterly and deliberately wrong?
    alex435784 hours ago
    Do you believe Biden enforced US immigration law in line with Article 2 Section 3 during his term?
rayiner6 hours ago
This index uses the word “democracy” when it really means “liberalism.” In an amazing use of doublespeak, most of this index is focused on liberal checks on democracy, not democracy itself.
Under a proper understanding of “democracy,” the massive backsliding happened in the 20th century. In Europe, with the advent of the EU, which shifted power away from voters to unelected bureaucracies seated in foreign countries. Or in the U.S. in the mid-20th century when vast power was delegated from the elected President and Congress to an unelected administrative state.
- wredcoll6 hours ago
  Nobody thinks that a president type figure appointing someone else to run a part of the government they are responsible for is an erosion of democracy.
  What, specifically, is the alternative? The president does literally everything? We have elections for each dmv clerk?
  Or maybe we draw some kind of line and say some jobs should have elections and others aren't worth the effort.
  (And no, you can't just say "the job of dmv clerk should't exist" because someone has to do it and I'd much rather that person be answerable to an elected government than a corporation or worse)
  - rayiner5 hours ago
    What you’re describing is how administrative bureaucracies used to work in the U.S. before the 1920s and in Europe before the E.U. That’s consistent with democracy. The anti-democratic part is when the elected officials began delegating more and more power to those bureaucracies and those bureaucracies became more independent and insulated from elections. That when the backslide happened.
    In the U.S. that happened because of legislation and new legal doctrines in the 1930s. In Europe it happened because of increasing delegation of power to the centralized E.U. bureaucracy.
- waon2 hours ago
  How telling that in your version of events, "massive democratic backsliding" happened right after the conclusion of WW2. Yikes.
  - hollerithan hour ago
    He's referring to FDR, who was inaugurated well before the end of WWII.
    waonan hour ago
    European integration did not happen before WW2, because you know, Europe was at war.
    Moreover, criticizing FDR's response to the great depression while solely condemning Europe for its post-war policies isn't a great counterargument.
- Krssst5 hours ago
  > In Europe, with the advent of the EU, which shifted power away from voters to unelected bureaucracies seated in foreign countries. Removing it would transfer power away from the people to EU's adversaries and large monopolistic entities.
  The European parliament is elected. When people don't shoot themselves in the foot and put weird politicians in it, being a bigger group means more power to coerce large companies into behaving better. See: GDPR or small things like removal batteries or removal or roaming fees. So in a sense it allows people to recover some power over large companies.
  Generally attacks on the EU sound like they come from other countries or large companies that would benefit from it being split so that individual countries can be better bullied into submission (though the EU has not been very competent at not bullying itself into submission to the recent new American leader).
  - rayiner5 hours ago
    The European Parliament has little actual power. With 375 million voters that are split by language and culture the electoral power is so diluted that most of the actual authority rests with the EU bureaucracy.
    jurgenburgenan hour ago
    This is an argument I can support. We should definitely increase the number of MEPs and also give the parliament more power.
    Krssst3 hours ago
    It votes on all laws so it has a strong power to stop bullshit. I fail to see how the amount of voters would remove that right. The power stands with the people who actually get out to vote.
bruceb4 hours ago
I read the actual report. It isn’t scientific. It’s just opinion masked in numbers.
Just because some is elected and does things you don’t like doesn’t mean democracy is ending.
- goatlover38 minutes ago
  What if the things I don't like are anti-democratic? Like masked agents without warrants dragging people out of their homes and cars while ignoring federal court orders about using tear gas and other tactics? Or starting a war in the Middle East without consulting Congress and the American people.
- rorylawless3 hours ago
  What do you mean by “scientific”? These concepts aren’t discoverable in nature. However, they’re transparently defined in the code book and the “opinions” are available for analysis in the expert coder-level dataset.