Democracy is an aberration
Democracy is a flash in the pan. In the UK, full universal suffrage — the right of all adults over 18 to vote — has only existed since 1969, which is only 55 years. In America, it was established with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
For a tiny, tiny moment in our history, a tiny minority of us have spent a few generations living with almost complete freedom, and an unimaginable amount of security, peace, and safety. We have literally grown taller, started to live longer, and flourished in this microsecond of human history we call Democracy. But we have grown so used to it that we forget that democracy is an aberration in human history; not a new normal, but a weird exception. Even today, of 195 countries in the world, only around 14 are full democracies. Democracy isn’t even normal now, let alone over a timespan going back more than a few generations.
According to the Economist Democracy Index of 2023, “Less than 8% of the world’s population live in a full democracy, while almost 40% live under authoritarian rule.” In the last year, that number will have fallen. America is not a Working Democracy, but is considered ‘flawed’ by most analysts.
The victory of the Allies in World War Two established the concept of the Western Democracies that most of us have grown up in. Whilst WW2 was about many things, ultimately it was about the right of the people…
