Dictatorships and “enlightened” youth: An open clash $35,000 worth of iPhones and Macbooks – US Apple Store robbed on Black Friday

Crises are bad times for liberal ideas. And we live in a time where one crisis follows another: financial crisis, terrorism, Corona, the war in Ukraine. As a result, prosperity in the West is threatened by inflation and energy shortages. This often results in a desire for the strong and caring hand of the state.

In many Western countries, left-wing and right-wing parties and individuals who offer simple answers to complex questions have tailwinds. The result is a worrying erosion of democracy, says the Stockholm-based Institute International IDEA in its annual report published Wednesday.

The intergovernmental organization, of which Switzerland is also a member, aims to promote democracy worldwide. That was not far off in 2022. According to the IDEA report, democracy made progress in only a few countries. In contrast, setbacks were recorded in more than a third of the 104 countries classified as democratic.

Declining acceptance of democracy

Europe is no exception. In 17 countries, almost half of all democracies, there has been a decline over the past five years (Switzerland has remained stable). Another worrying finding: since the Democratic “awakening” in the 1990s, their reputation has steadily declined. Authoritarian systems with ‘strong leaders’, on the other hand, are viewed more and more positively.

There are several reasons for this: unfulfilled prosperity promises, being overwhelmed during crises, sharp polarization as a result of social unrest, fragmented party landscapes. They contribute to disenchantment with politics in democratic countries. The West is also often accused of applying double standards, and not always unjustly.

The willing subjects

At the same time, China, for example, praises its supposedly efficient system as superior. In a crisis-ravaged world, it is therefore not surprising that authoritarian regimes are gaining popularity. However, the question is whether this trend is sustainable. Because the times are actually over when autocrats could count on willing subjects.

Dictatorships are archaic, ‘medieval’ systems. They were able to stay in power for centuries because people could not read or write and had no access to knowledge. Their life took place in a very small space and most of the time they were surviving.

More knowledge, less poverty

Freedom and democracy could only come about if school education was introduced for everyone and people could earn a decent income. Those who do not have to fight every day to survive develop a need for self-realization. This made democracy a success story in the second half of the 20th century.

Now we are deep into the 21st century and the problem is getting worse. Because the Internet, despite its negative sides, contributes to the fact that humanity has access to a huge amount of knowledge. Poverty, while still widespread, appears to have declined. This is reflected, among other things, in falling birth rates.

The problem with the boys

It is therefore not surprising that control of the Internet is the highest priority for authoritarian systems, even though not everyone has mastered it as extensively as China with its “Great Firewall”. And that they have their greatest following in rural areas, which are still characterized by deprivation and poverty.

The faces of the protest in Iran

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The faces of the protest against the regime in Iran

source: keystone / abedin taherkenareh

This is in contrast to a younger, well-educated, urban class. It is already becoming a problem for dictatorships. This was evidenced by the violent protests in Myanmar after the military retook power. This is evident in Russia, where hundreds of thousands have fled the country since the invasion of Ukraine.

Iran example

The developments in China and Iran are particularly interesting. The Islamic Republic is a theocracy that allows “secular” universities, most of which are still attended by women. At the same time, they are treated as second-class citizens by the mullahs’ state. The headscarf obligation in public is just one example.

As a logical consequence of this, violent outbursts in the form of unrest and protest have repeatedly occurred in this field of tension for years. Now the case of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who was probably beaten to death by the “moral police” because her headscarf did not fit “correctly”, was the last straw.

Demonstrations and protests keep the country in tension for weeks, with the universities as ‘hotspots’. Because Iran, heavily sanctioned for its nuclear program, is doing badly economically, the regime, backed by a Byzantine apparatus of power and repression, has no answer but brute force.

The Revolutionary Guards or the bashing Basij militias act with the utmost brutality against the insurgents. Observers therefore doubt that the current wave of protests can seriously jeopardize or even overthrow the mullahs’ regime. But Iran has a very young society. The last word in this conflict has certainly not yet been spoken.

China example

Another recent example is China. About a week ago, the largest protests against the Communist Party since the democracy movement took place in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. However, large is a relative term. Usually there were a few hundred or at most a thousand people. But here too it was mainly the boys.

The rallies with a blank sheet of paper protesting censorship are just the tip of the iceberg. Because dissatisfaction with the zero-Covid policy with permanent mass tests and arbitrary lockdowns has gripped large parts of the population, especially since they have been watching the World Cup in Qatar on television.

Many Chinese wondered what planet they live on in front of thousands of unmasked football fans. The party responded to the protests with carrots and sticks. She threatened crackdown by the security forces. At the same time, the first easing was ordered. The government is clearly trying to get out of the impasse into which it has maneuvered itself.

Unlike Iran’s totalitarian regime, China’s totalitarian regime has long relied on “soft power” in disciplining the populace. It promised her prosperity and efficiency in return for obedience. Zero Covid challenges this, but since President Xi Jinping took the party under his thumb, ideology has taken precedence over pragmatism.

It remains to be seen whether this strategy will work in the long run. Unlike Iran’s repression, China’s repression is based less on guns and clubs than on a digital surveillance state. This includes ubiquitous facial recognition surveillance cameras and the Covid apps that serve as a tracking tool.

Authoritarian systems and ‘strong men’ are still on the rise. Still, one wonders how “medieval” dictatorships can be compatible in the long run with the demands of a 21st century society. Democracy may have fallen into disrepute, but its material achievements are prized even by despots.

The system issue is undecided as the world won’t get out of crisis mode any time soon (climate wasn’t even mentioned here). Perhaps, thanks to their arsenal of repressive means, the dictatorships can continue to oppress the population, regardless of the cost to society.

But perhaps in the long run people will realize that democracy with its checks and balances offers the most convincing overall package. Or to quote Winston Churchill: “Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all others.”