Countries with an impressive democratic pedigree succumb to the push for the new toy of “majoritarian democracy.” We are not just talking about third category states. The United States itself made a beginning experiment in this field during the administration of Donald Trump, and there is no guarantee that they will not repeat it in the short or medium term.
It will soon be known if the new concept of ‘majority democracy’ that some media talk about when talking about the disturbing process taking place in Israel will be consolidated. A journalist from Channel 12 recently used it by changing the tone of his voice, instilling a certain sarcasm with a negative connotation in an Executive based on the comfortable support of the majority . The government commands a strong majority in parliament but adopts measures that ignore the opposition and ruthlessly crush some basic democratic principles with a cruel roller.
Israel is not an exceptional case. Hungary, for example, is a member country of NATO and the EU, another. But the phenomenon happened in places that were not on the road that considered themselves fully democratic, but where the new “majority democracy” began to use its power without restraint. Hungary, where Viktor Orbán has conquered the opposition, destroying the critical media, is the most striking model of the new Western system introduced by the illiberal world that no longer includes the underdeveloped or the developing countries like India or Pakistan.
Countries with an impressive democratic pedigree succumb to the push for the new toy of “majoritarian democracy.” We are not just talking about third category states. The United States itself made a beginning experiment in this field during the administration of Donald Trump, and there is no guarantee that they will not repeat it in the short or medium term. The case of Israel is somewhat different to the extent that it is subject to strong nationalist and religionist shocks that worsen the situation, because nationalism and religionism undermine democracy ex officio from the same starting point.
The responses of these governments to the criticism they provoked were mostly the same. Leaders involved in “majoritarian democracy” remember that they were freely elected by the majority, and argue that this is what democracy is all about and that the support of votes gives them the freedom to dictate their policies. From one election to another, the number of voters who support them increases, so that the new system is in good health and shows itself as a trend for the future that consolidates in more and more areas and takes root. -fix where it already works.
In the West, “majoritarian democracy” is defended mainly by right-wing parties and extreme right-wing parties that gradually gain more representation in parliament, although the phenomenon is not necessarily right-wing. Many people have lost faith in the traditional democratic system, which has fallen into a deep crisis in the center of the arc, while the extremes are constantly strengthened. Plato said that democracy leads to tyranny and gives the impression that we are experiencing a transition in that direction.
On other occasions in history, tyrants violently ended democracy, which was supported by a more or less large part of the people. But now the common people are supporting the tyrants from the polls. People seem to be tired of traditional democracy and are leaning towards tyranny. Fatigue can come from living in highly complex societies that are not easy to manage, so that people prefer the simplifications promised by tyranny to the increasing complexity of democracy. The result is that “most democracies” are developing, which is a euphemism for tyranny.
The policies of Orbán or Benjamin Netanyahu have always been with tyrants, but unlike the historical tyrants, Orbán and Netanyahu insist that they got clear support in the polls in fair elections. The people always elect them when they have the possibility of defeating them through ballots. This is the foundation of the “majoritarian democracy” to which the Israeli journalist sardonically refers.
We live in a time of change. Traditional democracy cannot be sustained forever, it cannot be sustained for long. Israel and Hungary may simply be the vanguards setting the course on which the West and the rest of the world are developing: traditional democracy is fading and slowly deteriorating as tyranny grows fatter.
In the cases of Israel and Hungary, some resistance was observed in the streets, but the noise came from a clear minority. In any case, it is interesting to see how tensions are resolved in two countries that constitute a true laboratory of modern oppression.
