A Reflection on Democracy

The other day, I was told that I always talk about democracy and turn every conversation into something that ends up being about democracy. And frankly, that is absolutely correct, and I am proud of it. For me, everything starts and ends with democracy, which made me wonder why that is so. I thought about where my appreciation for democracies comes from, why I have more of it than most others have left in my generation, and what this democratic appreciation means in the bigger picture. A reflection on democracy follows.

Source: https://law.mpg.de/perspectives/democracy-globalized-the-promise-to-be-fulfilled/

This conversation about my obsession with democracy gave me food for thought. Have I become a democracy radical over the past years?

I am aware that I am a convinced Democrat like you can only find a few in this world. Not in the US-party sense but in the political system sense. Democracy means a lot to me. I have appreciated democracy and democratic values for a long time already. I remember dinners at the table with my parents when I was 9, maybe 10 years old. While conversing about the economy, politics, and society, they didn’t get tired of saying how essential civic freedoms are for our lives. They replicated these statements like a mantra and stated that one should never take them for granted.

These conversations with my parents have significantly shaped my political interests and perhaps explain why I specialized in democratic recession during my Masters- I don’t take democracy for granted. Fed by this gratitude, the ongoing processes of democratic backsliding in all democracies make me even more keen about democracy. For every person who says, “I don’t want to talk about politics,” I talk twice and thrice about it.

To me, as the person I am today, it is unimaginable to live my life in a non-democratic system. I greatly appreciate my civic freedoms, and as my educational path proves, I want to learn about the factors contributing to a stable democracy. Ultimately, I will always stand up for democratic values. I do this because democracy means everything to me. I know that it shapes the conditions of my long-term future and therefore it’s worth discussing it whenever possible.

A Regime Bias through Socialization

I see myself blessed, being born in a democracy and having lived so far only in democratic countries. Personally, for my own life, I wouldn’t want it any other way. To me, a life in democracy is the best life imaginable. At the same time, I am very much aware that this perception stems from the fact that I grew up in a democratic system. It is the system that I am used to, making me biased towards it. Honestly, I don’t have any personal life experiences in a non-democratic system. Thus, I know that my perception of the for me “best” system is biased through my life experience in exclusively democratic states. Would I think differently if I hadn’t been born and raised in a democracy?

As a German, I live in a country in which the Eastern population has experienced a dictatorship for many years. It gives me the advantage of having conversations with people whose lives look similar to mine today but who have experienced a very different socio-political socialization than I did in the past. If you talk to people who lived in East Germany, the former GDR (or DDR in German), you can witness the bias that I personally have towards democracy, shifting to the other end of the scale. Many East Germans liked their lives under the authoritarian DDR rule. Yes, many people lived happy and satisfied lives. Some even dream about returning to the DDR system today. And in part, this desire for a DDR-like system even explains the AfD’s success in East Germany, promising a more authoritarian rule.

Reasons for this? The authoritarian rule does not just limit freedoms but also personal choice. And even though to me this seems to be a disadvantage, in a world as overwhelming as ours, people can find this very attractive. Thus, you don’t have to make some very tough decisions in such a system, that otherwise would burden on your shoulders. As paradoxical as it may sound, an authoritarian rule can also give some security and safety to (some of its) citizens. In the case of the DDR, many people appreciated the state-controlled housing market. You were not free in choice, when and where to move. However, more fundamentally, the system guaranteed that basically everyone would have a place to live, regardless of their professional, economic, and financial success. Thus, the authoritarian rule can be an attractive option for more risk-averse individuals and those who fear losing in the capitalistic gamble.

Even though these exact desires, for me as a convinced Democrat, are not relatable, I still get it. We all grow up in some system, some more or less democratic than others. But regardless of how many democracy or dictatorship boxes the system ticks, the system frames people’s reality of life. It shapes their perception of risk and decision-making. It determines the options and opportunities people have. And while these options and opportunities vary with the system on the democracy-dictatorship scale, there is one thing that people in all systems have in common: They try to make the best out of their lives. We get used to the system we live in, we come to terms with the circumstances, and we create our own strategies and perceptions that maximize our happiness and satisfaction under the system surrounding us.

Thus, it is tough to convince somebody who lived a satisfied life in one system to switch to the opposite type. Why switch if everything works fine for them? Just as you cannot convince me to switch to a dictatorship since I am used to and have arranged my life around democratic standards, open-mindedness towards diverse people, equality, and the offer of endless opportunities. You also won’t be able to convince somebody who lives happily under a tighter authoritarian regime that dictates and predefines many parts of life to switch to a more open system.

East and West Germans in the night of November 9th, 1989. Source: https://www.br.de/radio/bayern1/sendungen/am-nachmittag/25-jahre-mauerfall-einheit100.html

Internalization of Democratic Values and a Free Will for Democracy

I recently visited a museum in Berlin that addressed East German history. There was an interview with a woman who was a teenager when the Berlin Wall fell and the DDR dictatorship shifted to a Democracy basically overnight. In contrast to the widespread narrative about biographies like hers, she said she perceives her life story as a unique opportunity. Instead of pointing out the disruptive change, she remarks on the historically rare chance to experience life in such two fundamentally different systems, first in the German dictatorship and later in the German democracy. She has a valid point: The perspectives on life, the world, and the reality of life are fundamentally shaped by the political systems we live in. Only very few people have the option to live in a democratic system and an authoritarian dictatorship and hence internalize and switch these fundamentally different perspectives. It enables such individuals to identify the characteristics of each system and create an understanding of individuals’ perspectives from both systems.

Apart from understanding the respective other system, there is a fundamental difference between individuals in democratic and authoritarian systems. In contrast to the dictatorial system, in which individuals are forced to “like” the system the way it is established from the top, in democracies, individuals have to appreciate the democratic values and standards in the first instance in order to raise such a system from the bottom.

Following this logic, it doesn’t take much to establish a dictatorship. As history has shown (and as the presence is showing again right at this moment), it only takes a few powerful men (I select the male gender consciously at this point) who grasp power by bending and breaking the democratic rules until they are in control and the rules no longer democratic. Once there, it only takes suppression and systematic intimidation to keep the dictatorship running – tada! Dictatorship is established and maintained.

Achieving and maintaining democracy takes so much more than this. It takes a large number of individuals who liberally want to create and maintain a system like a democracy. A democracy cannot be forced upon a society, unlike a dictatorship. A democracy needs the support of the whole society because democracies are built on the civic rights and duties of each and every single one, and not just a ruling elite. The majority of people must appreciate and value the idea of a free, open, democratic country, and you cannot force them to. Unlike you can force people to support or at least accept a system under authoritarian rule.

However, people are not just born with an appreciation for freedom, equality, and the rule of law. This appreciation must be taught, celebrated, and nourished through recurring conversations like I had with my parents as a child. It also needs a strong belief in society, enforced by the democratic experiences in society. Experiences in which free and equal people enforce freedom and equality in an open democratic system reciprocally. Such experiences ultimately promote a belief – in contrast to distrust- in every single one, being able to maintain these democratic standards and appreciate these freedoms for everyone. Thus, even though we can understand the individuals’ perspective in the other system, it is tough to transform the people’s mindset from a dictatorship into a democracy.

In the case of Germany and many other European countries, it took a World War (actually even two) to make individuals appreciate democratic values and freedoms. In the US, it took a civil war and centuries of slavery to find a common ground on a free and equal system. And as the current situation shows, there is no guarantee for ongoing appreciation, only because it was established once. The appreciation of democracy and democratic values is fundamental for every democracy but must be continuously nurtured from the inside and the outside in the citizens’ perceptions.

Lastly, a democratic system is carried on the shoulders of many citizens who must want to carry the system together. A few people eagerly wanting a democratic system cannot make a democracy yet (also this was proven multiple times by freshly implemented and then failed democracies, e.g., in Latin America or North Africa). The population as a united entity must want it, and individuals must do their part. Every single one must perform their duty as a democratic citizen and give their vote on election day. Every single one must keep their eyes open and speak up when they see people abusing their power, breaking the rule of law, or taking advantage of the system at the other’s expense. Once a share of people in a democracy stops performing its democratic duties, a democracy is doomed to fail. It paves the way for the power-hungry men. In that sense, a democracy is a continuous collective effort, much more than a dictatorship could ever be.

My Personal Appreciation for Democracy

I get touched when everyone works together on something more significant, something bigger than each individual could ever be. I get goosebumps when I am stuck with my car in traffic, and all drivers manage to collectively form the emergency lane for a rescue vehicle in a matter of seconds. Every time I see the videos of strangers chatting, dancing, and singing on the Berlin Wall in 1989, united by the desire of change and the rush of the moment, I have tears in my eyes. Moments of collective action make me emotional because they come from the individual decision to do the right thing for the collective, without being forced upon them or suppressed to do so. And this is why democracy means so much to me.

It may be the biggest collective action system that humanity has ever created. And this is what fascinates me: Millions of individuals in a country liberally put in the effort to keep a free and equal system running.

Democracy gives me goosebumps. It is like a nation-sized emergency lane. To me, democracy is the end and the beginning, and I’ll never stop talking about it.