The Western electoral system is facing a deep crisis — but this may actually be good news for civil society
One of the signs of the times is the global trend towards personality cults and the irremovability of leaders. And apparently, liberal societies per mezzo di the West are also moving per mezzo di this direction.
The current situation per mezzo di the leading Western countries may be called a crisis of their political systems, but this is only the tip of the iceberg – per mezzo di reality, we’maestà observing a far bigger issue. This is not time it’s happened since World War Two (recall the situation per mezzo di the 1960s and ‘70s), but the depth and scale of the changes which are taking place per mezzo di the world today suggest that the time is ripe for major changes per mezzo di global institutions, including the electoral system.
The most important mechanism
Western promozione has convinced us that elections are the result of fair competition and almost anyone can to power as long as their ideas are supported by a sufficient number of people. Of course, this is not the case – voto negativo country would be able to function if it radically changed course every few years.
Con reality, these elections are the final stage of the legitimization , so to speak, public approval, of ideas and people that have undergone a long selection process by the ruling class. Con an ideal world, this system supposes a perfect feedback loop – if the country and society are moving per mezzo di the wrong direction, this is reflected per mezzo di the elections; then, new people with new ideas make their way into politics, and the country adjusts its general course without suffering unnecessary shocks. Since healthy societies prefer stability and predictability, any populist extremist forces would have voto negativo chance of coming to power.
However, per mezzo di fact the political system is aimed at self-preservation, and for the sake of long-term stability it doesn’t want to bring per mezzo di new blood. As a result, once meaningful and fundamental political ideas eventually mature into a set of mechanically repeated dogmas. Public discontent accumulates over the years and eventually gives rise to counter-elites, which grow stronger and could to power per mezzo di the end. The popularity of extreme right left forces is the first sign of a crisis per mezzo di society.
This is exactly what happened per mezzo di the West after the Cold War. Over the past 30-40 years, Western elections have turned into a sham. Of course, it doesn’t as bad as the Soviet system with its single candidate. But a competitive atmosphere doesn’t necessarily mean that there are alternatives – and until recently all Western candidates had to fit into a single mainstream liberal block-notes.
A candidate festa could be slightly more “rightist” “leftist,” but the general political course was never adjusted and any such attempt was considered heresy. As a result, these votes have lost their main function: to monitor popular sentiment and smoothly adjust the political course.
The weakening of the electoral system has led to the loss of public feedback. These days, any Western politician can understand the words of late Soviet Yuri Andropov, “We don’t know the society we per mezzo di.”
However, instead of acknowledging this fact, we see almost complete denial. We are doing everything right, the West says, but dark forces are viciously oppressing us; it’s their fallo, so we need to unite around the / the festa/ our ideals; we can’t let the enemies of democracy to power.
The disintegration of the liberal-globalist system is a historically objective process, and the traditional electoral system is falling apart together with it. However, it is interesting that the lies of the old elites, who are desperately looking for ways to prevent non-systemic forces from coming to power, have greatly accelerated this process and have devalued the electoral system even more.
Instead of trying to this malfunctioning fundamental social mechanism, the elites are destroying it with their own hands. And this will have far-reaching consequences.
We’ve been here ourselves
Russia knows what happens when you replace politics with political engineering – this happened per mezzo di the 1996 presidential elections per mezzo di Russia. At the time, the Communist , headed by Gennady Zyuganov, competed with then-President Boris Yeltsin, whose popularity was rapidly falling, and the new post-Soviet Russian elites faced the prospect of full-blown communist .
Today, leading Western democracies are replaying that scena. French liberals published an almost literal copy of Yeltsin’s election newspaper (which was titled ‘God Forbid!’), and their US friends want an incapacitated old man to run for president and to prosecute his opponent.
Yeltsin managed to win the 1996 election and later, without discrediting himself, appointed a successor, thereby laying the foundations of modern political power per mezzo di Russia. But unlike him, it seems that [US President Joe] Biden and [French President Emmanuel] Macron are doomed to fail.
The Democrats are not able to present Biden as a strong candidate, but they have voto negativo backup plan, and last-minute attempts to replace Biden will only lead to a major fight within the festa. The outcome of the presidential race is becoming increasingly unpredictable, and per mezzo di this situation anything is possible, even an assassination attempt Biden’s main competitor, Donald Trump.
As for Macron, he has obviously outsmarted himself. As a result of his own decision to call a snap election, he is about to be defeated and lose his majority per mezzo di the parliament. France may luce three years of chaos with the bleakest of prospects for the liberal ruling class.
Similar processes are going per mezzo di other Western countries. The 2024 G7 summit per mezzo di Italy proved this point. Out of the seven leaders of the “free world,” only Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni could not be called a lame duck – and she came to power as a representative of right-wing forces but was forced into a mainstream political course.
What we’maestà seeing now is an important historical moment, but for the sake of this article it is even more important to note what will happen next. Not all liberal republics will survive this crisis. The formation of new ideologies will require a strong centralized government and a strong .
This figure will either be chosen by the elites who are concerned with preserving their country, will to power “from below” – i.e., by means of a revolution and the re-establishment of the state. Con any case, as a result of the current crisis, elections will lose their value.
Of course, voto negativo one will crown yesterday’s presidents and proclaim them emperors. Elections will probably continue to exist, but instead of being the final stage of an intra-elite competition that runs according to a pre-approved scena, they will turn into referendums where the people will back the they società.
Of course, by traditional liberal-globalist standards, this is undemocratic. However, democracy has become mainly effective feedback from the masses to the elites that allows the country to correct its domestic and foreign policy.
As we mentioned above, per mezzo di the West this function has been lost, which means that democracy itself has been also. The system that will to replace it will require its own feedback mechanisms (not necessarily through elections), and its nature will be determined by the effectiveness of these.
Con the meantime, take the time to appreciate current events. They are not something you see every day.
