This piece was written for the December 2024 edition of Postscripts, Shamillah Wilson’s monthly round-up of what’s been happening in feminist circles, her work, and some recommended reading suggestions.
While the U.S. and Europe have swung right, showing distinctly anti-democratic tendencies, elsewhere democracy is being defended by citizenry and election results have largely been accepted.
Venezuela is one example. Despite the U.S.’ devastating sanctions and sinister role in supporting pro-Western parties, attempting to undermine the popularly-elected Maduro government, the socialist government is still standing. In South Africa, the country of my birth, the African National Congress lost its 30-year parliamentary majority this year, forcing it into a coalition, but accepted the election results. South African political commentator and academic Stephen Friedman lists Ghana and Botswana as also losing elections in 2024 and accepting the results, while Zambia’s governing party has in the past also accepted defeat.
In his latest article on Against the Tide Democracy without the West Friedman points out,
“For more than four decades, the West has seemed to be a key influence on democracy’s spread in the world – so much so that it became common to claim that democracy was a Western political system. It isn’t Western: while we are often told that the Greeks invented democracy, we now know that decision-making by the people (in those days, only the men) actually started in India and Iraq. But the West always liked to project democracy as its property and many outside the West believed it.”
Spelling out the West’s growing irrelevance to democracy is important in debunking the myth of Western defenders of democracy that the U.S. particularly uses in its regime change efforts against leaders in resource-rich countries that are not pro the U.S.
Friedman lists recent events in South Korea and Senegal to demonstrate popular interventions thwarting the anti-democratic actions of its presidents.
“The attempts to suspend parliament and impose martial law by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached on 14 December, were thwarted by the public and parliament. “Large crowds took to the streets to reject martial law and lawmakers gathered so that they could apply the clause in the Korean constitution which gives Parliament the power to undo martial law… A majority of members made it into the Parliament and voted unanimously to end martial law. The president was forced to concede and to lift the declaration. … Korean democracy has survived,” writes Friedman.
“In Senegal, early in the year, the president’s announcement that elections would be indefinitely delayed – presumably because he thought, accurately as it turned out, that his party would lose – was thwarted by demonstrations and … the country’s constitutional council. The election was held and the opposition candidate became president.”
As we reflect on the current state of democracy globally, we do so intent on ensuring that we have the necessary environments to protect and advance human rights. As citizens, we are aware of the multiple ways in which our civic space has been shifting and shrinking. In other words, civil society has used opportunities and space outside government to come together to organise and engage in the collective life and wellbeing of all.
As we continue to defend democracy, we do so because we know how important it is in ensuring peaceful and inclusive societies. Ultimately, ensuring that human rights remains a potent tool to free the potential of humanity to secure a dignified existence for all.
