Democracy

Source: guardian.co.uk
Ian Burumaguardian.co.uk

BSTAs people across the world rally against elites, our elected politicians must show strong leadership to regain respectElites are under siege in every corner of the world. Tea party activists in exurban America rant and rage against the so-called liberal elites of New York, Washington and Hollywood. In Europe, populist demagogues, such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, rant and rage against the elitist "appeasers" of Islam. In Thailand, red-shirted demonstrators from the country's rural northeast rant and rage against the military, social, and political elites of Bangkok.The first principle of democracy is that government must be based on popular consent, even if the government is made up of parties for which many people did not vote. It is clear from the worldwide rage against elected governments that this consent is becoming dangerously threadbare. More and more people in democratic countries feel unrepresented, anxious, and angry. And they blame the elites.The phenomenon is worldwide, but its causes differ from country to country. American populism is not the same as Thai populism. Culture and race play important roles in the United States – the culture of carrying guns, for example, and the discomfort at having a black, Harvard-educated president who talks like a law professor.In Thailand, the rage stems from the perceived neglect of the rural poor by the ruling class, backed by big business, the army and the king. The populist billionaire and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared to be different. He used some of his vast wealth to shower money on rural areas. Rural people, grateful for his largesse, voted for him twice.Authoritarian, crude, and somewhat megalomaniacal (almost as though he were a king himself), Thaksin was a Thai version of Silvio Berlusconi. He was removed from office in 2006, following a bloodless military coup that was supported by the Bangkok middle class, whose members took to the streets in yellow T-shirts (the colour of the Thai monarchy). Today's ongoing pro-Thaksin red-shirt rebellion is a form of revenge.In Europe, the power of the European Union, often-uncontrolled immigration, and economic globalisation are challenging feelings of national belonging, of being represented by national governments, or of sharing national cultures. Demagogues who denounce multiculturalism and warn of the "Islamisation" of the west are exploiting the resultant fears about the loss of national identity.The sense that globalisation is creating new classes of haves and have-nots is a factor that inflames most current forms of populism, regardless of national differences. At the same time, new technology, without which globalisation would not be possible, is being used to mobilise people for populist causes, too.
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