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Liberal democracy has been on a downward slope since reaching a high-point when communism collapsed in the early 1990s. There's no longer a need for countries w
by bleepblorp 6y ago
Liberal democracy has been on a downward slope since reaching a high-point when communism collapsed in the early 1990s. There's no longer a need for countries with marginal commitments to the principle of democracy to keep up a democratic pretext in the interests of keeping communism at bay.
- Animats 6y agoI've made that point before in a different way. Capitalism has achieved an ideological monopoly. There's no competition left from communism. It is not an accident that capitalism delivered the most for the average worker when there appeared to be an alternative way to run things. That's the period from about 1920 (the Russian Revolution) to 1980 (the USSR was still hanging on, but nobody believed in the promise of communism any more.) China is interesting. It's theoretically communist, but in practice mostly capitalist now. It's authoritarian, but more by constant bureaucratic pressure than random hits by goon squads. There's central planning, and five-year plans that have real effect, yet most of the movers are private companies. Finance is tightly controlled; manufacturing less so. People move up in the government by starting in low-level jobs and getting promoted; there is not much movement between business and government. So far, results are reasonably good.
- ahartmetz 6y agoI would say that the decline was imminent following the collapse of communism, but I only started to notice a severe regression of civil liberties and liberal attitudes after the 9/11 terror attacks. I live in Germany, mind you. The changes have been even bigger in the US as it seems. Even most of the current leftist ideas seem strangely authoritarian and dogmatic.