On Wednesday, the 26th of May, at 6 pm Greek
time, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be seen on a live conversation
with Harvard professor of Public Policy and co-author of the famous 2018 book
“How Democracies Die”, Daniel Ziblatt.
The event, which will be broadcast on culturalsociety.gr.is
organized by the Thessaloniki-based Cultural Society of Entrepreneurs of
Northern Greece and was the idea of New Democracy MP and university professor,
Dimitris Kairides, who will also moderate the debate. With the Prime Minister, former vice President
of the Greek government, Evangelos Venizelos will also talk with professor Ziblatt, as well as the rector of the Panteion
University, Christina Coulouri and Elaine Papoulias director of the Minda de Gunzburg
Center of European Studies at Harvard University.
It takes the opportunity of the bicentennial commemoration
to explain the pioneering role of Greece, at the European level, in adopting
democratic models of representation from the early 19th century
until May 2021. On the occasion of this event professor, Ziblatt spoke to the
press.
The event is titled “200 Years of Independent Greece
1821-2021: From the Ideal to the Practice of Democracy. Then and Now.” It
takes the bicentennial commemoration to explore the pioneering role of Greece. at
the European level, in adopting democratic models of representation, from the
early 19th century until today.
On the occasion of this event, Professor Ziblatt spoke to the Greek press.
“Greeks were among the first people in Europe to create a
democratic nation-state in the 19th-century government, by a democratic
constitution. One hundred-and-fifty
years later, Greece became one of the first 10 members of the European Union in
1981, seven years after the seven-year military junta. Greece is a shining example in the current
era of autocracies and offers some optimism that democracy is resilient to
overcome setbacks.”
The great Harvard political scientist, Samuel Huntington, argued that democracy swept the world in great sparks, a phenomenon that he
called democracy’s “three waves”, the first beginning in the 1830s, the second
after 1945 and the third after 1974.
What is so striking, if one looks back to both 1st and 3rd
waves, is that Greece is always there, in 1821 and 1981, a forerunner of what’s
to come elsewhere.
“The recent resilience of the
Greek Democracy in the face of momentous economic crises we can hope is the
harbinger of resilience elsewhere. The
main point I would like to make, however, is that democracy is not a machine
that runs on its own, it requires skilled leadership to overcome forced polarisation,
political courage to withstand the demagogues, and a bit of good luck.”
The Greek contradiction is "that
democracy almost collapsed in 2015 because of a referendum for the EU’s support
package, which was handled as a celebration of democracy. Why do more and more voters, in democratic
countries, seem to be ready to empower autocratic politicians to undermine
democracy by winning elections?"
Throughout history, there have
always been demagogues who are happy to use the institutions of democracy to accumulate power and, in the process, destroy democracy.
In recent years this threat has become more significant for a couple of
reasons. One key factor is that
mediating institutions of our democracies – political parties, interest groups, and media institutions have weakened, in some way. The rise of social media and new political
parties looks “democratizing.” But the
paradox of our times is that these changes have welcomed demagogues, making it easier for them to gain power. A second key factor that
has harmed democracy in the US, though to a lesser degree in Europe, is the
rise of political division, which creates a policy where rivals increasingly regard
themselves as enemies. This, obviously,
is very dangerous.
The US Republican Party is dominated
by the belief that the 2020 elections were “stolen”. Do they believe that was the case because so
many black and Latin Americans participated in the electoral process for the
first time? Is US in danger because of
pervasive and persistent racism? Can Joe Biden’s agenda for democracy save this extremely difficult situation?
Governments around the world are
accused of cutting fundamental rights and constitutional freedoms because of
COVID 19, and many fear they might be tempted to continue using some of those
powers to control societies, even after the pandemic ends. They even used massive-scale powerful
surveillance systems for the first time.
Is there more need to strengthen the constitutional checks and balances
against excessive use of government power?
Our democracies have responded to Covid is a positive way. People have been convinced that keeping distances, wearing masks and being inoculated against Covid will save the world from this deadly plague.
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