Without active citizens liberal democracies slide into autocracy

This is no time for optimism. But not for pessimism either - we need active meliorism.

Liberal democracy enables people to live their own lives free from oppression and from material deprivation better than anything else that humanity has tried since the invention of larger societies.

The first decades of my life was filled with optimism, as liberal democracy was on the rise. Berlin wall and the Soviet empire fell, freeing people to pursue more democratic societies. China’s economy was growing rapidly, alongside increased civic liberties, with signs of progress outnumbering the signs of regress around the world. It felt like sooner or later we all were heading towards societies respecting freedom and human rights. Francis Fukuyama famously announced that with “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government", we are approaching the end of history.

That sense of inevitable progress is now long gone.

Russia is as internally oppressive and externally aggressive as Soviet Union was at its worst, China has harnessed modern technology to survey, control, and oppress its citizens in unprecedented ways, and the beacon of liberal democracy, the United States, has voted a strongman back to power, despite his clear intentions to not respect any democratic checks and balances, and his close allies offering explicit plans on how to turn the country towards increased autocracy. Several European countries are struggling with their own anti-democratic forces. The Global Democracy Index has been on a steady decline since 2015.

This is no time for optimism.

However, it is no time for pessimism either. What is needed is not paralysis but action. Brené Brown reminds us of Snyder's model of of hope where it is not a feeling but the combination of having a goal, a pathway to reach it, and a sense of agency of being able to get there. What we need right now, according to her, “is micro-dosing hope”, small targets and goals through which to restore faith in that a better world is possible to build through action.

Myself, I tend to call this attitude meliorism, the doctrine that despite the world not being the best nor the worst possible, there is always something that can be improved. Thus, one should identify what can be influenced, and then focus one’s energy on making a better change into reality as regards that.

Aleksei Navalnyi is a powerful example of this attitude. After Russian government had tried to poison him and he nearly escaped death by being treated in a German hospital, he returned to Russia and was immediately jailed. In captivity he knew that most likely scenario is him dying in there – with his wife they agreed that this is the outcome to be expected. He was too much of a realist to know how persistent autocratic regimes are, and thus likely to outlive him. Yet, despite the dire situation he wrote: “Of course, I do not approach the situation just with a passive, contemplative attitude. I'm trying to do everything I can from here to end autocracy (or more modestly, to offer my contribution to ending it). Every single day I weigh up how to be more effective, what constructive advice to give to my colleagues who are still free, what are the main weaknesses of those in power.”

The US is, luckily, still far from the autocracy of Russia. But the US will continue its slide in that direction, unless active citizens form a strong enough counterforce to those pushing for autocracy. Political scientist Barry Weingast has demonstrated that mere democratic institutions are not enough to uphold democracy – one also needs citizens that “hold these limits in high enough esteem that they are willing to defend them by withdrawing support from the sovereign when he attempts to violate these limits.”

In Russia it is too late, but in the US the citizens still have the power to vote and the power to spread their ideas. Effective action requires breaking the pattern of billionaires owning key media and funding key politicians to push their agenda. It requires that people around the political spectrum realize that no matter their differences on policy and identity issues, they must come together to defend the democratic institutions.

This is the task of free citizens of all countries where those with autocratic tendencies seek ways to gain influence. We need to become active and do our own part to oppose those forces to push the country back on track towards stronger rather than weaker democracy.

While situation might seem hopeless and the decline inevitable, history has shown that committed citizens can alter the course of the history of their countries. Periods of decline can be followed by periods of improvement. But not automatically. Only if enough of us commit to collective action for a better, more democratic world.

What each of us needs to do, is to start with smaller steps to together build a movement to preserve the dream of a world, still available only to a minority of the world's population, where citizens are equal and free.