On the 20th of March, the “3rd forum on Democracy, the shared human values” held at the sprawling building of the Chinese Academy of History in Beijing. More than 200 scholars, researchers, former government Leaders and party leaders from across over 50 countries settled into massive compound of the Academy of history to interrogate the contentious subject of democracy, its trajectories and prospects but more importantly, how it can be made to work and deliver tangible returns to the various people.
A key take away is that though, democracy is a shared human value, its practice must take on a considerable local content, absorbing the accumulated wisdom and experience of any particular people with reference to the unique strength of their national condition and the shared outlook of their future together. The particular local contents must pitch seamlessly with the generalized and universal variables of democracy to make it really works beyond the simplistic rhetoric and slogans.
To this extent, the forum agreed that democratic construction is never a walk in the park and never a package to be lifted off any shelf. The former Italian prime minister Mr. Massimo D’Alema lamented the hollowing out of democracy in advanced Western countries, which he noted was drifting away from the principle “one person one vote” to “one dollar one vote”
Implicit in the democratic process is a key factor of learning and adaptation with particular focus on improving the institutions and processes to align with evolving realities. No mechanism or institutions are perfect at all times, without the need to adapt to new realities and emerging challenges. The mounting social tensions in advanced liberal democracies of the West, featuring large scale protests by workers, farmers, professional groups are evident in the deficit of democratic renewal or more precisely, a concentrated expression of democratic stagnation.
Late last year, for the first time, in its history, consultant medical doctors in the United Kingdom went on strike to protest declining conditions of service and general decline in health care delivery. Across a swathe of Europe countries, far right and extremist political parties, seizing the opportunity of social tension and political paralysis are positioning themselves as more trust worthy than mainstream parties.
Across Europe and more particularly in the United Kingdom, there has been considerable decline in party membership, a well regarded factor in measuring democratic participation. Current data put the membership of the UK’s ruling conservative party at 172, 437, while its Labour party counterpart has total membership 399,195. The third party, the Liberal Democratic counts only a little over 90,000 British as their members. This means that of nearly 70 million British Citizens, less than a million persons or just one percent are in effective political participation.
If one ponders that the leader of the party elected at a party conference of less than 1% of the British population, will become Prime Minister after winning a parliamentary seat to represent one constituency, the point of democratic recession or rather stagnation would become even more graphic. With party membership and participation clearly on a steep decline from their peak in the 1960’s, 70’s and even 80’s, contemporary leaders of the United Kingdom and most of their counterparts in Europe instead seeking to renew and recharge their democratic process, prefer the weaponization of democracy for ideological confrontations and political goal scoring.
Despite accomplishing nearly a hundred percent literacy level and attainment of universal suffrage, the United States of America holds on to the electoral college system in the determination of a win of its presidential election, which means that electoral college delegates counts above popular votes even though the composition of the electoral college delegates is determined by the popular votes with varying numbers for states. The obvious fact is politics and its processes are not responding adequately to the questions people are concerned.
The Forum which comprise political heavy weights like the former prime minister of Thailand Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, former Greece foreign minister, Mr. Georgios. KatrongKarlons, former prime minister of Egypt, Mr. Essam Sharaf, former governor of Tokyo and Minister of Health, labour and welfare in Japan, Mr. Yoichi Masuzoe etc. warned that democracy should not be taken hostage for the mere purpose of power projection. Such weaponization of democracy undermines its essence.
For a democracy that works, must serve practical needs of the people and also reinforce their values. No democracy would be worth its name, if it leaves out any meaningful response to vital questions, to which people are generally concerned. And for democracy to respond to questions of the time, its institutions and processes would be suitably positioned to process the issues, address the questions and formulate responses that meets the broad expectations of people.
African delegates to the Forum lament that democracy in the continent has been considerably handicapped by Institutional dysfunction, extant formalism and seriously undermined by the deficit of local content, and further identified the West and its enormous pressure for the distortion and disarticulation of democracy in Africa. They bemoaned that democracy in Africa has not kept pace with governance and most issues germane to people have not been adequately responded to, leading to a widening gulf between the result of low outcomes in governance and the formalistic practice of democracy.
Existential issues of reducing or alleviating poverty, bulging youth’s unemployment, more substantive participation in supervision of governments beyond the rudiments of merely thumbing the ballots are critical issues to be resolved and institutions must reflect vital values through which people communicate, engage and participate. This implies that for democracy to be functional and beyond formalism, must draw on the facts of the realities which people live through and express their concerns. This would go beyond the simplistic rudiments of the current formal institutions which with all its outward features are hollow, dysfunctional and ineffectual in responding to the questions for which people are practically concerned.
The Forum praised China for taking democracy beyond rhetoric and establishing it as a fundamental framework which not only defines her political organization and process but gives the people the critical tangibles, especially the material security without which rational judgement and choices, without which democracy is empty, verbose and lacks sustenance. For delivering moderate prosperity to her population, and continuing in the journey to give the people better life, China demonstrates the strength of uniqueness, an advantage which every country and people possess and which can be leveraged to search through their historical experience and deliver on the strength of their uniqueness.
In his keynote speech to the Forum, Mr. Li Shulei a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Central Committee and Head of the Publicity Department of CPC Central Committee said that democracy stands a crucial symbol of the advancement of human civilization and that the CPC has led the Chinese people to embark on a democratic development path with Chinese characteristics.
Mr. Li, further emphasized that during the 2024 Chinese “two sessions’, the annual convocation of the country’s top legislative and advisory bodies
Parliamentary deputies and political advisors nationwide made proposals and suggestions covering various aspects of economic and social development, representing the voices of the people from all walks of life, and added that the proposals will be carefully considered and integrated into the policy-making process.
Mr. Li Shulei further stated that democracy is a common value for all humanity, aiming to safeguard and enhance global consensus, and democracy should not be used as a tool by certain countries to serve their own political purposes. He emphasized that some countries are interfering in the future of other countries under the guise of promoting “democracy and freedom” which goes against the spirit of democracy.
“China fully respects the right of people in all countries to independently choose their own development path, and is against countries creating divisions and spreading prejudices in the international community under the guise of democracy. China is always ready to work with other countries to build international relations based on mutual respect and win-win cooperation”, Mr. Li Shulei said.
Mr. Ong Tee Keat, former deputy speaker of the Lower House of the Malaysian parliament noted that “China supports the diversity of democratic practices and sees the connection between the realization of people’s wishes and the level of social development that can support the wishes”, and added that this is especially vital for countries previously colonized by western powers as they should prioritize the basic survival needs of their own people.
Further articulating the critical fundamentals for a democracy that works, the forum held that important questions of material well-being of the people should be of principal concern, for democracy to consolidate, expand, and flourish.
Affirming that democracy is a learning process which must proceed from the reality and national condition of each country, while paying crucial attention to the experiences of others and the lessons offered, such virtuous trajectories will turn a broad consensus into institutional efficiency and governance competency, thereby giving effect to the concrete and tangible outcomes from the democratic process.
As a major power, China takes her responsibility very seriously as she continually offers platforms to engage contemporary issues very relevant to the human prospects and in hosting an international dialogue to explore issues around democracy and prospects meet a global consensus that history far from being at its end is actually at the cusp of new starting points with the opportunities, it offers to interrogate emerging realities and examine new tools for advancing the human prospects.
In the overall, the implication on a global scale for the success of China’s modernization and democratic construction is not so much about its achievement as it is the privations struggles, diligence and forthrightness of its authors.
To see the achievements of modern China without the rigor of insights and the practical toils that saw it through and continues to oversee it, is to miss out on the fundamental lessons it offers, to those who seek to seize the initiative of their national destinies.