Democracy 3 complacency full#

Democracy 3 complacency full#

We didn't know then that the world had entered what Samuel Huntington would call in his 1991 book the 'third wave of global democratization.'īut it did initially bring about the full democratization of Western Europe with the transitions in Portugal, Spain, and Greece then the transition of a wave of military dictatorships back to democracy in Latin America then the very inspiring changes in Asia with the People Power Revolution in the Philippines in 1986, the student revolution in Korea for a second time within a decade in 1987, and free and fair elections there in 1988, and the beginning of a quite remarkable and successful transition to democracy in Taiwan, and all of this happened before 1989.īy the time we had the big bang of the fall of the Berlin Wall and then the collapse of the Soviet Union, not only did we have Europe basically whole and united more or less around the principles of-and increasing the reality of-liberal democracy, but we had a wave of transitions back to democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. Democracy began expanding in the mid-1970s.

The trends, I think you know very well, were protracted and very inspiring, and they didn't begin with the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

When you're told that we've reached the end of history and that there has been a triumph of democracy and there is a triumphalist tone to it by our own leaders it can lull one into a sense of complacency and what we call in the social science field kind of teleology, that this is all natural, predestined, and irreversible. When you live through a long period of positive and inspiring change you can be lulled into thinking that this is the new normal and that there's no reason why it can't go on indefinitely. We've lived through a remarkable period, and it was a long remarkable period. Thank you for setting the stage for me so generously. I'd like to thank Penguin Press and my colleagues who turned out to hear me even though they've read the book and now they've got to hear me summarize it and bring it up to the current moment, if I may. I'd like to thank the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. LARRY DIAMOND: Joanne, thank you for welcoming me back. Please join me in welcoming our very distinguished guest this evening, all the way from California, Larry Diamond. As he says, 'It is not a cry of despair but a call to arms.' He focuses on political reforms that will strengthen and safeguard this noble ideal. In providing a sobering description of the origins and impact of the global insult from both domestic and foreign sources, our speaker addresses what can be done to revive democracy.

In his stirring new book Ill Winds Professor Diamond writes that democracy is facing its greatest period of challenge and adversity since the end of the Cold War. There is ample evidence that democracy is facing difficult times, and the question is why, and how can we revive it. This was the 13th consecutive year that witnessed more decline than progress. In its 2019 report Freedom House noted that last year more countries became more oppressive than more free. Several major democracies, including countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa are either hanging from a populist thread or showing large and growing signs of strain. What's wrong with democracy? This is a question that is being asked more and more around the globe.Īs the most successful political idea of the 20th century, democracy seems to have run into trouble.

In it he distills decades of research indicative of what he argues is a global threat to democracy. He will be discussing an important new book entitled Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency. We are very fortunate to have his insights about a world where democracy is under siege. Professor Diamond has spent over four decades studying and promoting democracy in every region around the world. It is a sincere pleasure to welcome back to this podium one of the world's foremost scholars of democracy, Larry Diamond. I'm Joanne Myers, and on behalf of the Carnegie Council I'd like to thank you for joining us.