American President Joe Biden convened a cyber "Democracy Summit" with leaders of a number of other countries on December 9 and 10, though the list of invitees was carefully constructed to include countries friendly to the United States and to exclude countries which in the eyes of American political elites do not accommodate US interests.
The gathering's true intent was to shore up America's role as the sole planetary superpower and attempt to perpetuate its ability to impose its own “rules-based order” on global society. America’s claim to be the guarantor of democracy is based on rather flimsy grounds.
Recent events have highlighted the deep and ongoing inequalities within the US, with racism, gender issues, and worsening poverty and economic decline marginalizing the voices of millions of citizens. Efforts to exclude people of color from exercising their voting rights have been spreading, along with an overall discrediting of the legitimacy of the electoral process.
But the equation of a two-party electoral system with democracy in America is itself an exercise in wishful thinking. The domination of national and state governments by the two mainstream parties has no place in the original constitution. The revolving door of majority and minority roles in the government means that each party can simply blame the other for the persistent problems plaguing the country. Neither party ever has to accept full responsibility for its performance in government.
The electoral process itself is warped and distorted by the power of money. Campaigning for national or state offices requires vast sums of cash, either as the personal wealth of candidates, or coming from wealthy individuals or corporations seeking to protect and promote their own interests. This is why so many members of Congress are themselves millionaires. Money buys control over information, sometimes directly, but also through the relentless presentation of the existing order of things as the only possible way of carrying on political and economic life.
Through the mass news media, online information, as well as the constant messaging of radio, television, movies and other kinds of “entertainment,” the consciousness of the American voter is shaped to accept the powers that be as the sole option to “represent” them. Efforts to bring about true social change, to create a just and equitable society, are dismissed as idealist fantasies. Cynicism and passivity are the real basis of the power of the system.
Other societies, though, have sought ways to promote and protect the interests of ordinary people in ways that go beyond the simple acting out of brief electoral moments. In China, for example, a wide variety of mechanisms are in place to enable people to articulate their needs and interests, not only on the days of formal elections, but whenever they feel the need to do so. China's system of democratic consultation is very different from that of the United States, but should not be dismissed or misrepresented in the West.
Biden's "Democracy Summit" holds up the American way as the only way, which reflects the long history of the US seeking to reshape the world in its own image, for its own interests. But other peoples have their own cultures, their own ways of doing things. America would do well to respect the rights of peoples to decide the form of government under which they choose to live, and to organize their political affairs in ways which suit their own ideas and beliefs.
The economic and political affairs of the world are being reshaped in ways which are bringing about a multicentric order, one within which the United States will no longer be the dominant power. American elites have become accustomed to telling people all over the planet how to run their lives, and to using the economic and military power of the U.S. to enforce their will when other countries fail to toe the American line. But this era is fading. American politicians fear the loss of power, and the possible consequences of having to operate in a world where those they have oppressed and exploited for their own profits now have an increasingly significant voice in global affairs. Biden's efforts to weaponize "democracy" are part of this rearguard action to try to hold on to American hegemonic power.
Rather than posturing about the superiority of a system which is in fact deeply flawed, and which in reality serves the interests of the already wealthy and powerful, American leaders, and the American people, should be seeking ways to work with people around the world, on their own terms, to find paths to a better future, a more just and equitable world which we can all build together. Hope is better than fear, peace is better than war.
(The author is Professor of History and Academic Department Head in the Department of History at New Mexico State University.)