Democracy Scholar at the Hoover Institute and Stanford University, Prof Larry Diamond has expressed worry over global decline of democracy.
He disclosed that there are fewer democracies worldwide now compared to a decade ago when citizens had less reason to complain about their governments.
Speaking in an interview hosted by Bernard Avle of Cities TV,Prof. Diamond mentioned countries like Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Tunisia where insurgencies have occurred.
“Democracy is in decline globally, which means there are fewer democracies now than it was 10 years ago. More countries have been living in democracy than have been moving to it. Witnessed Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, if you want to go further North, the only Arab countries that had democracy no longer has it.
“We have had troubles in Latin America. We’ve had troubles elsewhere in Africa. South Africa is not doing very well right now democratically because of bad governance.”
Prof. Diamond attributed the decline of democracy to the failure of governments to control corruption and poor governance.
He further stressed the issue of social polarization due to the rise of social media and disinformation from Russia and China.
“So, if you ask why [I say democracy is in decline], one reason is the failure to control corruption.
The poor quality of governance and the rule of law are often a leading indicator. But there’s also a trend of greater social polarization as a result of social media, and disinformation, particularly from authoritarian actors like Russia and China,” he asserted.
