Credit:PA
The Daily Mail has questioned whether democracies are a bit overrated as China starts to flex its autocratic muscles.
In a column that (let’s be honest) we could all see coming, Charles Dunst warned that a new “autocratic world order” could be looming if we’re not careful – pinning the blame on the troublesome tradition of letting people vote on things and having their say.
Indeed, so disruptive has all this voting been that we risk sliding into “second-class status, our economies stalled, our influence diminished”, he says.
Such disarray has led to the rise of “decisive” politicians like Donald Trump and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, whose ethnic nationalism and contempt for liberal democracy are (apparently) seen by his followers as “virtues not vices”.
Extinction Rebellion founder Roger Hallam is the same, Dunst notes, because he once said climate change is “bigger than democracy”.
“The would-be authoritarians look with envious eyes at leaders like Xi Jinping and think the same approach could do wonders for their own countries”, he adds.
“For a troubling number of voters and politicians, autocracy is the route to expansion.”
Read the article in full here.
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