The Future of Freedom and Democracy

Moderator: Jacques Rupnik

Panelists: Fareed Zakaria, Shirin Ebadi, Saskia Sassen, Colin Crouch, Grigory Yavlinsky, Alison Smale

 

 

Jacques Rupnik opened the panel by examining the rise of authoritarian capitalism and the idea of the West fostering democratic change. He introduced Fareed Zakaria, whose voice he called a ''lucid, rational analysis at a time when media often refer to knee-jerk responses.”

 

Zakaria began the keynote speech, “I am going to try to inject a dose of optimism. The world we want to live in looks remarkably like the world we live in.” This world is marked by four phenomena:

 

 

He continued, “The world we are living in is one that is going through a power shift,” with the rise of the non-western world. Zakaria is concerned primarily with states that have “the trappings of democracy but none of the stuffing.” He concluded by discussing his concern over the state of democracy in the Western world, which has seen the erosion of some essential human liberties.

 

Shirin Ebadi discussed the political situation in Iran and maintained that governments do not get their legitimacy merely from the ballot box; they must respect a framework of democracy which includes human rights. ''At the beginning of the 20^th century, the idea was that free elections meant a democracy. Let us not forget, many dictators came to power as a result of winning elections. For example: Hitler.'' Ruling powers have come to power thanks to elections but they're not democracies, as is the case in Iran. Yet the government has consistently violated human rights, including women's rights, religious rights and those of minorities.

 

Saskia Sassen talked about the new clause found in many modern constitutions that states that a legitimately-elected sovereign government ''cannot presume to be the exclusive representative of its people in international fora.'' This clause is not explicitly stated in older constitutions. Sassen also posed the question of whether there is something about the occurrence of violence in a city that produces worldwide ''ontological horror'', as opposed to death from disease. She further argued that cities inherently try to avoid conflict as well as being sites conducive to democracy.

 

Colin Crouch discussed how the hegemony of the Anglo-American financial system has grown out of control.  He further elaborated on the political role of large corporations and the effect that they have on democracy. He said, “they will be sustained because we don't know any better way of sustaining prosperity.'' He said that corporations have become so big that they have become political actors.

 

Grigory Yavlinsky addressed the issue of the significant consequences that the problems in the core of Western democracies have for the rest of the world. He agreed with Zakaria that he has “no concern about democracy in Russia because there is simply no democracy there.” He discussed the fact that one of the primary reasons that Freedom House has observed a decline in world freedom is that there is “no positive example for the world,” since the United States has not provided one in recent years. He offered recommendations for improving the state of freedom and democracy in the future: increasing the quality of governmental élites and enacting pragmatic policies that are based on principles and values.

 

Alison Smale stressed the importance of “making language mean something.” She cited the Velvet Revolution as an example of the triumph of those who wanted to give meaning to language over a régime whose language was empty. She discussed the fact that there is a large generation gap in post-communist countries between those who experienced the lack of freedom under communist régimes and those who have only lived in a modern, globalized society. She feels that it is important to establish strong inter-generational communication between these groups.