democracy - Vision the Italian Think Tank

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continuing to produce innovation and wealth increase (and this confounds the manywho reduce democracy health to economics); and on the other, we have an institutionwhose powers have been gradually increased and made more significant to thequality of life of people (and this seems to say that are wrong even the ones that seeinstitutional reforms as the response to the crisis).The outcome does, then, suggest that the reasons of the problem we are analyzing aremuch more structural than many seem to believe.And it is not only election turn out the statistical evidence we should look at.Vision is, in fact, looking to indicators that more broadly say about the importancethat citizens give to politics. As we will see shortly, the feeling is contradictory: theythink political decisions are very important, probably more important than ever; andyet they never felt so incapable to impact these decisions.Resignation seems to be dominating and it is resignation to a context in which manycitizens do not feel represented or often are not satisfied of their political élitèswithout knowing how to propose a different one.Feeling of powerlessness.It is not a feeling limited to segments of the population that are excluded, but it is asensation that many feel, and that almost everyone and sometimes even those whohold governmental responsibilities seem to share.The sensation of not being represented and even more the idea that democracy is notable anymore to solve greater problems.What is happening then? Does democracy exist in the future of advanced societies? Isit right to propose democracy to those societies that are not quite democratic?*****In reality the fact that democracy is still the “least worse” possible political regimeseems to be confirmed by the History of the past decades. It might be enough, maybe,to remember three facts, without doubt limited as success indicators, but anyhowsimple and meaningful:1. gross domestic product per capita 2 ; going through the list 3 of the twentynations with the highest income per capita only one 4 is not included in the list(moreover limited) of the parliamentarian democracies fully operational 5 ;2 Gross Domestic Product as indicator of wellbeing has, without doubt, some important limits (on these “errors” seeVision in “The paradoxes of GDP”, in Vision 2000 available on www.vision-forum.org). but when the differences areexplicit, of some digits, the number is, still able to mark the boundaries between “families of Countries” to a differentdevelopment stadium (and widespread poverty).3 The world fact book, Washington, D.C. – CIA, 2001 as for the statistics related to income concentration4 Hong Kong that moreover only recently has witnessed a lessening of its democracy “levels”4
2. the inequalities; if we try, moreover, to observe another chart, that of the mostunequal nations, measured from the wealth percentage that is the prerogative ofthe first decile (the 10% most rich) of the population, only three 6 – on thecontrary – of the Nations on the list are democratic Nations;3. the variation in time of the number of democracies in respect to the totalamount 7 ; if in 1975 “democracies” 8 were 35 and therefore less than a quarter ofthe total (23,8%), in 1995 they doubled (78) representing half (47,6%) of thetotal amount.Democracy seems to produce more wealth, to distribute it better and, consequently, itseems to obtain an ever growing consensus.The classics of economic theory explain to us the reasons for democracy’s superiorityin terms of capacity to produce wellbeing. A democratic Country, like Adam Smith 9seemed to remember when he thought of American colonies, naturally has moreresistant antibodies in respect to the danger of consolidating monopolies and unfairadvantage positions and it favours mostly the development of competitive conditionsthat are essential in allocating scarce resources to the most effective enterprise. Witha more elegant argument Amartya Sen reminds us that greater democracy meansincorporating more “information” in the collective decision making process andtherefore greater chances that those choices produce greater wellbeing for a greaternumber of people.But it is still Amartya Sen that yet says something more: democracy, or ratherfreedom, is not the best guarantee of development (that it is not just economicdevelopment as some Indian states demonstrate). It is also a worthy objective initself, apart from the reflection in terms of wellbeing, to be pursued and defended.Is all well then? Is the magnificent fate of democracy really unstoppable?Not really. In reality, if we go back to the numbers that we just saw, and if we changea little the perspective, they tell a different story:1. If instead of the absolute values of gross domestic product per inhabitant, weshift to growth rates 10 the list of the fastest growing twenty nations 11 presents5 Different would be the risult if one conciders the growth rates of which the special chart today shows, obviously,planet Cina in the first places6 All three have become democratic recently: Brazil, Messico and Souht Africa7 Potter et al., 1997 Democratization, Policy Press: Cambridge8 Intended like Nations that have free elections and of some other fundamental rights coded by researches like that ofDahl, Democracy and its cities, New Haven: Yale University Press.9 The Wealth of Nations, 1776, Cambridge, Penguin Books10 Source The World FactBook, Washington, D.C. – CIA, 2001 and US Department of State11 Last years leader was Turkmeinstan5
Page 1 and 2: BACK TO DEMOCRACY 1In progress pape
Page 3: General elections UKShare of eligib
Page 7 and 8: The current limits of democracy’s
Page 9 and 10: DEVELOPING AN INFORMATION BASED THE
Page 11 and 12: The changes of a democracy that ‘
Page 13 and 14: minimum expectations that are assoc
Page 15 and 16: 1. ARE ELECTIONS STILL A LEGITIMATE
Page 17 and 18: Such a loss of information is, in t
Page 19: The issue we are talking about is n
Page 24 and 25: of a much celebrated choice of bein
Page 26 and 27: democracy today and specifically of
Page 28 and 29: decide to divide her/ his own vote
Page 30 and 31: It would then be much more realisti
Page 32 and 33: Iraq). The vote was “obviously”
Page 34 and 35: Similar innovations may then be exp
Page 36 and 37: situations are not equivalent, and
Page 38 and 39: 3. ARE CONSTITUTIONS STILL USEFUL?
Page 40 and 41: 5. DOES TELEVISION STILL MATTER? TH
Page 42: We, in fact, also, think that the d

democracy - Vision the Italian Think Tank

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