Skip to main content

Growing culture of depoliticization is 'sharply accelerating' fall of democracies

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*
Rule of law, transparency, accountability and citizenship rights are fundamental pillars of constitutional democracy. These pillars are eroding rapidly. The democratic cultures based on equality, liberty, justice, reason, science, secularism, tolerance and mutual respect for dissenting and diverse opinions are declining across the globe.
The corporatisation of electoral campaigns, market command over political parties, corporate control over political processes and policies are mortal threat to the citizenship rights and democratic polity.
The capitalist assault on democratic governance is creating conditions of political, economic, social and cultural crises, and giving rise to reactionary forces. Major democracies in Europe, Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania are facing the crisis of legitimacy and citizens are losing trust over their own states and governments.
The democratic governments are not representing their citizens interests but standing behind the crony capitalist corporates. The culture of depoliticization is growing in a massive scale which accelerates the fall of democracies as the most reliable form of governance.
Such a trend helps capitalism as a system to survive and to expand their control over every spheres of lives as depoliticization normalises democratic deficiency. The sharp decline of democracy in principle and practice helps an unaccountable, illiberal and unsustainable capitalist system to grow with the help of reactionary and conservative forces in the society. In search of profit, capitalism creates conflicts to control human and natural resources with the help of a securitised police state.
In a market led democracy, state and government, rule of people’s power is replaced by rule of money power. The millionaires and billionaires are funding political parties to participate in the democratic electoral processes to access state power and legitimise their profit seeking illegitimate systemic drive to control all resources.
The infiltration of money into politics threatens the very foundation of democracy as a form of governance by the people, where majority rule to respect minorities, and uphold the interests of the masses.
The corporate mega donors and their non-profit and civil society organisations are sponsoring political leaders and their parties with unlimited funding to shape corporate friendly policies at the cost of people and the planet. The data driven social media platforms are accelerating these processes of market led corporate control over our democratic polity by hiding every form of available alternatives.
Survival of democracy depends on preventing corporations that subvert democratic institutions
The corporate led consulting firms are managing public relations and manipulating public opinions with the help of false propaganda. Edward Bernays in his book, "Propaganda" (1921) argues:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."
Such strategy creates social, political and cultural foundations in service of capitalism by transforming need-based politics to a fraudulent desire-based politics, which can’t be achieved.
The British firm Strategic Communications Limited Group (SCL) is the parent company of the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica has played a major role in different political campaigns in America, Europe and Asia. In the name of providing data and analysis, such firms have unprecedented influence in shaping public opinion in support of reactionary political ideologies threatening democratic politics in different parts of the world. Such practices undermine democracy and citizenship rights by promoting false narratives.
In this context, struggle to save democracy is a struggle against capitalism. The survival of democracy depends on preventing corporations that subvert democratic institutions and processes. Capitalism is not compatible with democracy that ensures equality, citizenship rights, liberty, justice, secularism and scientific ethos in the society.
The working of democracy depends on deepening the struggles against capitalism. The local, regional, national and global solidarity of all struggles against capitalism is central to uphold democratic values in defence of people and the planet.
Let people decide how to reform their democracy and revolt against capitalism for the very survival of lives, livelihoods and the planet. Democracy is a product of mass struggles against all forms of inequalities and exploitations. It is time for the masses to struggle and reclaim democracy from the claws of capitalism.
---
*University of Glasgow, UK

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Chinese pressure? Left stateless, Rohingya crisis result of Myanmar citizenship law

By Dr Shakuntala Bhabani*  A 22-member team of Myanmar immigration officials visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to verify more than 400 Rohingya refugees as part of a pilot repatriation project. Does it hold out any hope for the forcibly displaced people to return to their ancestral homes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar? Only time will tell.

China ties up with India, Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingyas; Myanmar unwilling

By Harunur Rasid*  We now have a new hope, thanks to news reports that were published in the Bangladeshi dailies recently. Myanmar has suddenly taken initiatives to repatriate Rohingyas. As part of this initiative, diplomats from eight countries posted in Yangon were flown to Rakhine last week. Among them were diplomats from Bangladesh, India and China.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.

Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, others ask Bangladesh PM to 'protect' Yunus

Counterview Desk  A campaign has been launched to support Bangladesh-based economist, micro-finance guru and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, seeking signatures from citizens across the globe in order to “protect” his work, life and safety.

Electricity sharing opens up new window for India’s eastern neighbourhood engagement

By Sufian Asif* Today, challenges like climate change, pandemics, energy reliance, economic crisis, and many more are concerning us. No nation can overcome these obstacles without the assistance and collaboration of other nations. Most importantly, many of these problems have international repercussions. South Asia is facing much more difficulty when compared to other regions. In South Asia, we have some regional organizations, but they are ineffective.