This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum in association with The New York Times.
Democracy seems to be in trouble everywhere in the Western world.
Doubts about its efficiency and responsiveness to the lives and concerns of ordinary citizens have led to increased support for more autocratic policies and politicians on the far right of traditional politics. Democracy in polarized times can seem slow and even stagnant. And these leaders, by bursting through customary conventions and even legal barriers, are seen to be getting things done on behalf of their voters, many of whom don’t seem to care very much whether the results are for good or ill, but applaud the effort.
For the moment, and for the first time, populist or far-right parties are leading the opinion polls in France, Britain and, slightly, in Germany. And they are in power or in coalition governments in Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and, arguably, the United States.
For Ivan Krastev, a Bulgarian-born political scientist, the challenges to liberal democracy come from what he considers a revolutionary period. “It’s not a liberal moment,” he said. “Liberalism in pre-revolutionary times opens up the system and allows reforms — the rule of law, individual rights, reasonable politics. And liberalism is important post-revolution, to clean up the excesses.” But in moments of revolutionary change, he said, liberalism is quiescent, almost irrelevant.
When voters are uncertain or unhappy and “when things are not working,” Mr. Krastev said, people “are ready to tolerate strong politicians who dare to show that governments can do things, things normally perceived as undoable, even if those things are wrong.”
Mr. Krastev will be one of the featured speakers at this year’s Athens Democracy Forum, held in association with The New York Times.
The conference, which runs through Friday, will feature speakers, panelists, workshops and tutorials exploring the challenges to democracy, from artificial intelligence and subversion to complacency and inequality.
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