Six characteristics of democracy
I spent Friday and Saturday in the east of Switzerland, at the World Systemic Forum. It was an event as broad as the title, with contributions running from edge-of-pseudoscience through to deep conversations about food, water and political systems, and how they need to shift.
Fortunately, most of my event was in the democracy strand, where we had a good conversation informed by creativity, the history of South Africa and the insufficiency of democratic constitutionalism. Thanks to Lwando Xaso from the Moleskine Foundation for her facilitation and sharing her story.
As part of it, I was asked on the spot to define the characteristics of a modern democracy. I came up with six, quickly, but on reflection I’m reasonably happy with them as a starting point for further thinking.
The first three are the characteristics that the Athenians gave to democracy in the first century BC:
- Freedom (eleutheria)
- Equal application of law (isonomia)
- Equal right to speak (isēgoria)
Those are a good start for 500BC but they are not enough for the modern world. So on top of them I layered some of the democratic acquis from the last couple of hundred years.
- Equality of representation and accountability.
- Respect for the human rights of yourself and others.
And finally one that speaks to where need to get to in the future.
- A culture that builds a sense of common humanity and shared destiny.
Discussing these with colleagues this morning, someone raised an intriguing question: to what extent are those rights that can only be exercised by individuals, and to what extent are they community rights instead? How much do the different answers to that question about culture and traditions?
A question to come back to another time.
🚉 Tram lines - reading for your commute
- Stephen Bush coins the word Pécressification for the process of deliquescence of the centre right currently underway. Given research in Belgium that shows the attitude of the centre-right is more important than the attitude of the centre-left in restraining populism/far right parties, the lack of confidence of Badenoch and others is a worry.
- It's not all bad news about the rise of the far right .... but here is some more. A great, disturbing, long read on what Europe needs to learn from the rise of the far right in Austria.
- How does the UK economy grow, and does Labour have a theory for that? asks Ben Ansell.
🌞 L'Heure Joyeuse - for when you get some time off
- 🎬 L’Histoire de Souleymane - three days in the life of Souleymane, a Guinéen asylum seeker preparing for his asylum interview and working in the grey economy. Amazing title role performance by Abou Sangaré, and a very human film full of complexity and humanity. It was free of Loach-style lesson-giving. The state was not evil, the people around him weren’t heroic, he himself is spinning a line to try to get his claim approved. But at the same time you saw how trapped he was, and what he’d left behind.
- 📺 FC De Voorzitters (Play4) - a fly on the wall documentary about the challenges of being President (Voorzitter) of a bottom-division amateur football club, following four club presidents in Flanders through the season.