Democracy is a term that reflects the majority, if not all, of the political aspirations of people or companies that have been politically and civil in emancipating over the last approximately 250 years. Compared to all human history, it is short, but it has hit history so unseen that today we consider it to be the highest and most advanced political establishment ever.
An ideal idea versus capitalism
What is the ideal of democracy? Its concept originated from the will of the first, yet unelected politicians – idealists and experts. The point was in the provision of a government to respect the majority will, from which the stability of political systems and the smaller number of internal and external conflicts were promised. Against the backdrop of these practical steps, a philosophical direction of liberalism, recognizing an individual as an autonomous part of a society whose interest was and is to protect an individual, arose.
However, the second stage of liberalism has put obstacles to democracy, which paradoxically hinder its further development. Economic factors that depend on private ownership and are not dependent on democracy. Capitalism that has absorbed production resources and linked them to state policy. Simply put, economic interests have become the driving force of society from the lowest tiers to the highest ones, not looking at what state they are in, unless they reach for private ownership.
Liberal democracy is undemocratic
The current democracy has thus received the adjectives of liberal. While historically liberal democracy is associated with civil-legal activism, human rights, etc., today it is characterized much better by economic liberalism. To be honest, the authors of the democratic concept from the end of the 18-th century would probably not be surprised. State administration is led by democratically elected dictators with limited time to be able to either obtain the most for themselves or at least for some narrow part of society.
Economic factors allow you to deposit capital into anything, including politics, and generate either real or fictitious profit, which always benefits someone. The strength of economic interests motivates entrepreneurs to engage in the political process. Private interests are paramount. As a result, the entire democratic process of government, elections and all processes at all is not democratic, but economic in nature, which is contrary to democracy and its principles.¹
From democracy to elitism
“Democracy protects respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms, allows adult citizens to participate in the running of the state, includes citizens’ awareness. This type of political establishment stems from two principles, which are the principle of recognizing the freedom and equality of citizens and the principle of subordination of minorities to the majority”²
This description itself evokes abstractness and unclarity in what democracy is. It is true that the declarations adopted to protect people’s rights do not correspond to the development of democracy in the states. An example is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, and segregation of poor citizens and dark skin citizens in the US and other parts of the world continues to persist.
Another point of contention is the principle of subordination of the minority to the majority. Democracy should not be a place of submission, but a constructive dialog with the adoption of a compromise. The interpretation of subjection to one another is evoked by casteovarism, elitism, nationalism, but not democracy.
It is thanks to the inaccurate and unclarified ideas of people about the nature of democracy, especially among elected representatives, that the quality of interpretation is being reduced and, after all, erroneous interpretation is being made.
Capitalism is the death of democracy
The consciousness of free elections overshadowed the negative side of the free market economy. Economic shortcomings are justified by the fear of the past. However, politicians hiding behind rights, freedom and democracy can lead to a situation where democracy is retreating the interest of gaining strength with the support of the people. After all, history offers a number of examples, and all without exception have a common denominator – a bad economic situation.
Capitalism is the death of democracy, whether idealistic or practical. In Hungary and Poland, the right-wing parties show that the repression of rights is not a prerogative of authoritarian regimes, but also of democracies. In Western countries, right-wing nationalist parties, but also radical left-wing parties, which have diametrically different value frameworks, gain influence. The democratically elected President of Russia had sufficient motivation to become a leader who, with the popular support of the country, drew the country into war. The US puts a full stop to this, whose democratically elected representatives, as a rule billionaires, lead the state as a company, where the greatest attention of the world media every year attracts the adoption of the draft state budget.³
Unfortunately for Slovakia
The future of democracy in Slovakia is directly proportional to democracy in the world. The problems were already encountered in the governments of Róbert Fico, along with which the right-wing extremist party of the ĽSNS went to the Parliament. However, I would like to say that if the ĽSNS and the party Republika were to become the governing parties with absolute power, Slovakia would not suffer democracy as a result of their government, but as a result of the breakdown and fear of the current oligarchic or economic layers. Fear and uncertainty would make democratic institutions likely to stop working. ⁴
this was partly shown after the 2020 elections, when the OĽaNO won. However, the anti-corruption program has encountered a hard obstacle. Along with the Matovič Party, Kollár and Sulík also came to the government, who would not let their close friend in the party behind. This was the case, although a large part of the state administration was replaced, but there was a space for the private sector, which successfully filled the vacant positions.
The established mechanisms remained, but only their representatives were replaced. Unfortunately for Slovakia, again, these are not experts, but political nominees. ⁵
There is no alternative
Democracy does not develop in Slovakia and society feels it. It is not a democracy of the will of the people, but of the will of the economic elites. Any change on rise is sillied by these elites. There is no alternative.
What is worst, most of society is not aware that it is the carrier of power and political will. It will be satisfied with the act of the elections and thus any truly democratic initiative will end. If we are talking about the third sector and NGOs or civil associations, this form of citizen participation is low in terms of policy. And this is despite the fact that they are trusted by a significant part of citiziens. ⁴
The quality and level of development of democracy in Slovakia is an indication of the Institute of referendum. Although most people support it, or require it to be functional, elected government representatives of any party, on the contrary, undermine it, bagatelize its meaning. Why? As representatives of the elite, they do not want to commit themselves directly to the citizens.
Similarly, it is also with the inferences of material responsibility. To propose the law and implement it is one thing, the other is its impact. A collective decision by the will of the majority (represented by the elected representatives), although its law may harm, is justified.
Voters are waning, the elite wins
Many think that democracy represents only a few well-defined points, such as free elections or freedom of expression and the possibility for everyone to intervene in political affairs. People are thus subject to the conviction that we have democracy here, but still do not vote, because they do not believe the institutions, politicians, parties or have nothing to choose from, because nobody represents their opinions.
Just as the position of certain parties strengthens due to decreasing voter turnout, the legitimacy of a system where it is no longer the majority that governs the minority, but the opposite, the minority governs the majority, is also diminishing. The last parliamentary elections are clear proof of this. Only 65% of final voters voted in the vote and about 25% of them gave the vote to the winning party. Although the coalition that came out of this has a majority in Parliament, it has actually received around 45% of the votes.
The total crisis of democracy?
As a result, I have to say that democracy does not develop in Slovakia, on the contrary, stagnates and its negatives are becoming more and more evident. Whether it is the electoral system itself or the legislative process, there are more and more critics. The departure from democratic principles is noticeable and we can talk not about the crisis of liberal democracy, but about the breakdown of democracy as such, because the current system is far from democratic ideas.
Nevertheless, I believe in positive solutions. And not only I, the majority of people consider democracy to be beneficial. ⁶ I am not worried about it, because I believe that people will realize their worth and overcome the crisis by creating a fairer and more democratic society.
Bc. Maroš Čupka, DiS. art., President of FĽM
Resources:
- SŤAHEL, Richard. On liberal democracy and its threats. 13.9.2019. Available online: https://nazory.pravda.sk/analyzy-a-postrehy/clanok/525634-k-liberalnej-demokracii-a-jej-ohrozeniu/
- ÚPSV. Democracy. 23.6.2017, Available online: https://www.slovensko.sk/sk/zivotne-situacie/zivotna-situacia/_demokracia
- GEIST, Radovan. Defending Democracy. 10.12.2021. Available online: https://nazory.pravda.sk/dnes-pise/clanok/609908-braniaca-sa-demokracia/
- Democracy in Slovakia is threatened by populism and corruption. 2017. Available online: https://www.kas.de/documents/252038/253252/7_dokument_dok_pdf_50580_27.pdf/ef7d2fa1-820d-1d72-4bf3-2da7cdb0e10c?version=1.0&t=1539648375788
- KOWAL, Hubert. 31 years passed since Velvet revolution and the democracy in Slovakia has become a Turkish bazaar. 17.11.2020. Available online: https://www.trend.sk/nazory-a-komentare/ubehlo-31-rokov-neznej-revolucie-slovenskej-demokracie-je-turecky-bazar
- Slovakia and Democracy. 15.11.2018. Available online: https://www.sav.sk/index.php?doc=services-news&source_no=20&news_no=7949
