World Review Democracy 2019: an Opinion Section
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.. THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019 | S1 World Review Democracy 2019: An Opinion Section MATT ROTA Burgeoning democratic movements around the world have embraced new technology in recent years, but innovations have also made elections more vulnerable to attacks. Division is at center of debate At the Athens Democracy Forum, globalism comes under fire amid warnings of more interference in United States elections. ATHENS list nationalism that’s going to see us for- ward.” Mr. Lévy responded, saying, “If the will of BY FARAH NAYERI the people consists of voting for Hitler or supporting Mussolini, it is not democracy.” Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to Democracy requires “a lot of other princi- President Donald Trump, delivered a sting- ples,” such as the rule of law and the protec- ing indictment of global elites at a democra- tion of minorities, he added, and the populist cy conference in Athens, blaming them for parties backed by the United States were Farah Nayeri is a — among other things — bailing out the “spitting at the face of this great idea.” regular contributor world financial system at the expense of the Representatives of the global political to The New York working classes. In a debate, he hailed the elite were not in short supply at the forum. Times. resulting wave of populist nationalism that They included the presidents of Greece and put Mr. Trump in the White House. Ireland; European Union Council President His sparring partner, the French philoso- Donald Tusk; European Commissioner for pher Bernard-Henri Lévy, a fierce Trump Competition Margrethe Vestager; and critic, hit back, accusing the Trump adminis- Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of tration of abandoning America’s global re- Greece, son of a previous Greek premier and sponsibilities, and backing Russia and far- uncle of the current mayor of Athens. right European political parties. “I hear this debate about elites quite fre- The dramatic debate — held inside quently, and I would argue provocatively Athens’s old parliament building last week that I’m a poster boy for an elite, coming — was part of the Athens Democracy For- from a political family,” Mr. Mitsotakis said a um, an annual summit of world leaders, aca- day before Mr. Bannon’s remarks. The an- demics and activists convened in associa- swer was not to resort to populism, he said, tion with The New York Times. Illustrating but for mainstream parties to “bring in new the intensity of the battle for political minds blood” and be “much more democratic” in and souls going on around the world, the their decision making. As his landslide de- pair traded taunts and accusations, and hop- feat in July of the left-wing Syriza party had ped off their stools to face each other like proved, he added, “populists, when they Let’s make prize fighters. come to power, don’t offer any real solutions “Globalism is the last of the great failed to real problems.” ideologies of the 20th century,” Mr. Bannon Democracy as a system of government is began. He recalled the collapse of Lehman a given in the West, and has been for a long Brothers in September 2008, and the subse- time. Yet in large parts of the world, it is a quent rescue of the financial system distant dream, said Annika Savill, the execu- climate action through “negative interest rates” and other tive head of the United Nations Democracy policies. “On whose shoulders was that put Fund, a U.N. body that works directly with upon, because that has to be paid by some- civil society to support democracy. In an body? It was paid by working-class and mid- opening-night address, Ms. Savill said the dle-class people in the United States, Eu- word “democracy” appeared nowhere in the everyone’s rope and Asia.” United Nations Charter, and about half of “It was that effort that bailed out the the world’s countries “do not embrace it as a elites,” he said, referring to attendants of the form of governance, or merely pay lip serv- annual World Economic Forum in Davos, ice to it.” Switzerland. “The party of Davos brought That stark statistic was epitomized by the business that upon us, and it’s Donald Trump’s popu- DIVISION, PAGE S2 chambers4climate.iccwbo.org THE CHAMBERS CLIMATE COALITION STUDIO PANOULIS/ATHENS DEMOCRACY FORUM From left, Bernard-Henri Lévy, the moderator Roger Cohen and Steve Bannon at the forum. .. S2 | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION World Review EXCERPTS FROM THE FORUM New models of democracy At the Athens Democracy Forum last week, for democracy in your own country, in Syria. a conference organized by the Democracy & And you got beaten down. You made the Culture Foundation in association with The same appeals to the West to help that Na- New York Times, international leaders and than is just making here now, and nobody policymakers debated the evolving state of helped. Maybe just give us a quick overview democracy around the globe. Here are ex- of your story. cerpts from the discussions. They have been MR. EID I grew up with poverty, in a very dark edited and condensed. place where dreams are crushed and we have no opinion. Everyone was telling us since we were born that the walls have ears, that we cannot talk, we cannot think, we can- We and them: The tectonic not love, we cannot have any kinds of plates of nationalism and dreams. My only dream, and everyone’s dream, was actually to leave Syria, to get multiculturalism away from this big prison without walls. But in 2011 our dreams changed. During the Arab Spring, instead of all thinking Far from diminishing, ethnic, national and about how we should leave the Middle East, religious tribalism are on the rise and feeding how we should leave the Arab world and run intolerance, exclusion, populism and conflict. to Europe or run to America, we actually Why are the ideals of multiculturalism and just wanted to stay home and make our inclusion so elusive, and so often held in dis- countries a better place for everyone. We dain? stood up in the streets and we started chant- NATHAN LAW, Hong Kong politician and activ- ing for freedom, for democracy. But we dis- ist covered that was all bullshit. Democracy is KASSEM EID, human rights activist and author — I think it’s not for everyone. SERGEY A. KARAGANOV, dean of the School of In- MS. BENNHOLD Sergey, I want to come to you. ternational Economics and Foreign Affairs The West seems to be unable to deliver on its of the National Research University Higher promise of a multiethnic democracy, where School of Economics and honorary chairman there is no “us versus them,” there is just an of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign us. Viewed from Russia and from Moscow in and Defense Policy in Moscow 2019, is liberalism failing? Is Western de- mocracy on its way out? MODERATOR: KATRIN BENNHOLD, Berlin bureau chief, The New York Times MR. KARAGANOV I must say that I do not agree that democracy is dying in the world. It is MS. BENNHOLD Our topic this morning is as more democratic than ever for two reasons. old as humanity itself: us versus them. One is that now countries have more free- Nathan, you and your fellow protesters in dom ... than ever in history to choose their PHOTOGRAPHS BY STUDIO PANOULIS/ATHENS DEMOCRACY FORUM Hong Kong are fighting for the rights of ways, the cultural parts, their economic democratic freedoms, while in the West models. The second is, of course, that even we’re struggling with our own democracies. in more authoritarian countries, because of we can’t have both,” said Louis Brandeis, a MS. ALDERMAN Why are the rich continuing to growing divisions between rural and urban What is the “us” and the “them” for you? the information, people have more possibili- member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Was he get even richer, the middle class continuing populations. If democracy does not deliver MR. LAW The story of Hong Kong is really im- ties to influence their governments, even in right? Can economic inequality be tempered to hollow out, and the poor not being able to economic growth, and prosperity and the portant in this time, especially that we are formerly democratic countries. without discouraging innovation and en- make advances? Let me start with Margot hope for a better future, then people will lose fighting for democracy and autonomy of our trepreneurship? Wallstrom. faith in democracy and in democratic insti- hometown. I can tell, from a personal story, MS. WALLSTROM I really think that we are in a tutions as well. the worst form of this kind of “we” and PAUL POLMAN, former chief executive, Unilever, situation in the world today where it has be- MS. ALDERMAN Anna, one of the issues is the “them” is to stir hatred among people, is to and co-founder and chair, Imagine The cost of inequality: come a kind of fight between good and evil in continued development, the continued en- use misinformation campaigns to create MARGOT WALLSTROM, former minister for for- a way. And I think that rising inequality un- try, for example, of artificial intelligence conflict among people, and that’s what Progressive capitalism is not an eign affairs, Sweden dermines democracy. It does so because I technology in the workplace, also the contin- China has been doing. oxymoron ANNA DIAMANTOPOULOU, president, DIKTIO think that what we see now is a lost confi- ued spread of the so-called gig economy, MS.