| The global financial crisis, which swept across the world, has entered its sixth year.
The crisis has not only posed a grave challenge to the world economy, but also put countries’ political systems to the test, leaving Western countries feeling increasingly frustrated, anxious, confused and helpless.
Problematic Western democracy
Indeed, Western democracy is a problem. This is no longer the personal judgment of former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. The focus of discussions in the West has already shifted to the root causes of and solutions to the dilemma of U.S. and European political systems.
Polarization is a hallmark of Western society today. While there remains no consensus on the countries’ future and ways of existence to speak of, reforms in their political systems struggle to make progress.
“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect,” said U.S. President Barack Obama in his second inaugural address.
The speech provides ample evidence that Obama will devote himself to a decisive battle against the Republicans to resolve the political stalemate in Washington. The mainstream view in the West, however, is that no matter how determined he is, the multitude of invisible barriers will hardly budge.
Over the past hundreds of years, Western political systems have experienced a golden age. How they have gradually fallen into dysfunction and plunged into the current embarrassing situation is a question that calls for deepened systematic thinking. Nevertheless, the systems have exhibited evident flaws, on which insightful Western critics have made many analyses.
Political show
Ancient Greek philosophers said 2,500 years ago that human beings often shaped God in their own image, U.S. scholar Neil Postman wrote in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. TV politics has now introduced a new tactic: Those who want to be God can mold themselves into figures that viewers welcome, he added.
Postman’s sarcastic remarks expressed his disappointment in real-world politics.
Western democracy is so much about showmanship that the term “political show” has to give way to “a game of democracy.” Democracy has been simplified to elections, and elections to political marketing, which is synonymous with a competition of resources, strategies and performing talent.
Against the backdrop of a prosperous market and material affluence, people in the West are no longer satisfied with the fulfillment of physical needs. As a result, a culture of entertainment, featuring visual and emotional stimulation, has gained dominance. Western political advertisements share a common trait, which is to create a sensation with a slogan, a symbol or an eye-catching image. Voters sometimes do not know which candidates are the most qualified to be the president or parliamentarians. Instead, they are more concerned about whose image is the most appealing and who is best at helping them vent their discontentment.
Common sense and modern social science research show human beings can be rational, but they can also be extremely irrational. Irrationality has become prominent in an era of new media, money worship and commercial speculation.
There is also an underlying reason for indifference, namely a strong belief that procedures are infallible and as long as there is a good system, people do not have to care who is in office. The conviction derives from the West’s advantages in development and the resulting sense of superiority toward their systems. But how long can wealth accumulated in history, including illegitimate assets looted from developing countries and privileges in international order, last? Development is an endless marathon. No matter how strong its economic foundations are, no country can just sit back and relax. It will prove to be a good choice if they discard their illusory sense of superiority and take a more reasonable attitude.
When political products are thrust into the swirl of entertainment and serious issues become excessively undemanding, stimulation begins to act on society in a different direction. Now that candidates’ abilities, professional knowledge and political experiences are outweighed by appearance, religious belief, race, sex, age and showmanship in determining election results, it will be difficult for top-notch political leaders to come to the fore.
Worse still, politicians make empty promises to court voters, leading to a host of problems such as economic growth outpaced by soaring public expenditure, blind expansion of government credit and residents’ readiness to borrow debt and inability to live within their means--major causes of the ongoing global financial crisis.
Money politics
Two things are needed to win elections, said Mark Hanna, a campaign manager who helped William McKinley win two presidential elections in 1896 and 1900, adding, “The first is money, and I cannot remember what the second is.”
Things have worsened over the past century. In the West today, candidates compete with each other based not on their abilities and competence but on money. The combination of modern communication tools and commercial operation has prompted candidates to pump an increasing amount of money into their campaigns, giving rise to a vicious cycle. The nature of elections is changing, with funds becoming the key to success in fostering images.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter asked in 2007 whether George Washington and Thomas Jefferson could become U.S. presidents if they were alive. We never know how many people with excellent potential for becoming presidents are unable to ascend to presidencysimply because they are unwilling or unable to adopt a policy that can raise huge funds for their campaigns, he added.
For a long time, U.S. laws have provided for a $2,500 upper limit for private political contributions, a restriction that obviously runs counter to money politics. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the ceiling for the donations of individuals and companies to political action committees campaigning for candidates. Statistics of the U.S. Center for Responsive Politics show the races for the Capitol and the White House in 2012 cost $6 billion, making them the most expensive elections in U.S. history.
All love in the world requires a reason, and all political contributions come with strings attached. The more confident contributors are, the less efficient democracy will be. Opinion polls show most Americans believe election campaigns are too costly and political contributions will do nothing but help rich people wield a greater influence over policy making. A major consequence of money politics is that the middle class is being deprived of their status and marginalized. The conflict between 99 percent and 1 percent behind the Occupy Wall Street movement will be perpetrated and eventually lead to a greater crisis.
Christopher Caldwell, senior editor of the U.S.-based Weekly Standard magazine, pointed out U.S. politics has long been tightly controlled by Wall Street oligarchs. The Democrats and President Barack Obama are even more reliant on the assistance of Wall Street financial tycoons than the Republicans. In this oligarchy, neither of the two major parties is able to shake the solid foundations of Wall Street business giants.
“Set the bird’s wings with gold and it will never again soar in the sky,” wrote Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The maxim, meant to be an observation of life, can be considered as an apt description of the disastrous consequences of “money democracy” in the West.
Near-sighted policies
In a Western democracy, near-sightedness is always associated with obsession with amusement and money politics.
Most Western economies are so debt reliant that robbing Peter to pay Paul has become the common practice. From a political perspective, politicians vying to cozy up to voters have issued various welfare checks, emptying national coffers. In the end, ordinary people will have to pay the bill. In a sense, this is the cause of debt and fiscal crises in the United States and European countries.
“The core of the political problem on both sides of the Atlantic is the same--the demands of electoral politics in a modern democracy,” said an article titled Can Democracy Solve the West’s Economic Problems? in the U.S. newsweekly Time. “The politicians of the West are choosing the narrow interests of electoral victories over the greater, long-term good of their nations. Rather than focusing on closing deficits, improving economic competitiveness or forwarding the dream of European integration, they’re looking no further than the next vote count.”
Of course, there is a larger social background for near-sighted policy making. In the West, personal rights are absolute compared with the overall interests of society. Rights such as personal freedom and social welfare have been held in almost absolute terms. British historian Niall Ferguson considered this trend as a cultural shift to some extent. The West has far betrayed the future-oriented self-sacrifice spirit exhibited at its prime when it was experiencing industrialization, overseas expansion and large-scale wars. As a result, a cultural shift toward individualism has emerged, spurring consumerism and carpe diem.
A professor of philosophy with the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland said in the West today everyone feels they should act like capitalists to maximize their interests and seek profits without restrictions. As the capitalist lifestyle spreads to ordinary people, values that should have improved lives have been marginalized.
Moral crisis
The global financial crisis is also a moral crisis showing that the confidence of people in Western countries about their democratic systems is declining.
Facing this reality, Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, said the overwhelming majority of Americans believed their democratic government worked for the benefit of all several decades ago. But now the confidence has generally been shaken, and in the eyes of most people, the government is under the control of a few large interest groups as a tool for them to seek private gains.
Before 2008, Nobel Prize-winning U.S. economist Paul Krugman sensed that a crisis was in the pipeline. He believed the signs of the global financial crisis were the same as those of the 1929 economic crisis--wealth concentrated in the hands of a few people, systems and policies skewed in favor of the rich and the government in a sense hijacked by financial capital. After studying political and economic relations in the United States from the late 19th century to the early 21st century in detail, he came to the conclusion that political inequality leads to economic inequality, rather than vice versa. Historical facts and theoretical studies clearly show economic problems arise from political problems and social problems are a comprehensive symptom caused by economic and political woes.
In recent years, public commentators in the West have made an increasingly in-depth analysis of the electoral system, which has previously been held sacred. Despite growing calls for change, reforms have been slow. They have either hit a political stalemate or been merely minor adjustments. Ireland’s minister for European affairs warned Western governments are becoming the sheep of public opinion.
In the West, the overall interests of national development are often jeopardized by the votes of different groups of voters as well as systemic flaws. In this political context, it is almost impossible to set up a government highly capable of mobilizing resources and implementing policies. Also defects in Western political systems have been magnified, making fragmentation a characteristic of Western society.
The comments of Nathan Gardels, editor-in-chief of the U.S. magazine New Perspectives Quarterly, are to the point: Western democracy is subject to up-to-date news and the temporary tyranny of the majority, leading to widespread populism. The system lacks long-term thinking and planning as well as the political ability for lasting governance.
The quality of democracy should be judged by its performance.
Distorted democracy cannot bear fruit, be recognized or become a universal value.
Only democracy that aims to seek benefits for all and bring about long-term development for a nation is democracy of a high quality. |
