Rebuilding trust in democracy

Many of us may recall playing a sport or a game with someone who hates to lose. In childhood, there were times when whilst playing cricket, if the owner of the ball or the bat happened to lose his or her wicket (mostly his back then), he or she would pick up the ball or the bat and head home. This would invariably bring the game to an end. Occasionally, the same thing was done with a football too. 

A sore loser is the term used to describe someone who is easily angered by losing a contest, or who finds it difficult to accept that s/he has lost.

After the last Presidential election in the United States (US) which Joe Biden legitimately won, the incumbent, Donald Trump, refused to admit that he had lost.

Instead, he chose to peddle a false narrative that he was the winner. 

Trump’s rhetoric came to a head on 6th January, 2021 when hundreds of his supporters carried out an attack on Capitol Hill in a bid to keep Trump in power. With more than two years having passed since his defeat, Trump and scores of his supporters continue to reject the outcome of the election. One can perhaps refer to them as sore losers. 

More recently, Brazil held its presidential election on 2nd October, 2022. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (popularly called Lula) defeated the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. 

Seemingly borrowing from the Trump play book, without presenting credible evidence, Bolsonaro pushed the myth of widespread electoral fraud leading up to the election. This was apparently to set the stage to delegitimise the final results should he lose. 

According to the New York Times, Bolsonaro’s campaign undermined millions of Brazilians’ faith in the elections that underpin one of the world’s largest democracies.

Things came to a head on 8th January when hundreds of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the seats of power in the capital Brasilia, including the National Congress of Brazil, the Federal Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and the Supreme Federal Court. 

The riots in Brazil bore striking similarities to the 6th January, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. Both men, Bolsonaro and Trump, are close allies and it was not entirely surprising to see what unfolded in Brazil in the aftermath of its presidential election. 

Last summer, the former United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, also a former president of Chile, while speaking at Boston College in the US, said that democracy was ailing. According to Bachelet, the democratic gains of the past three decades have been greatly reduced. In a sobering assessment, Bachelet stated that “The number of countries leaning to authoritarianism is three times that of those leaning to democracy.”

It is easy to point fingers at rioters and protesters and condemn their actions. Of course, anyone who has a deep and abiding interest in the rule of law should rightly condemn attacks on democracy itself, especially in circumstances where claims of electoral fraud are baseless, as was generally the case in the US and more recently, Brazil.

However, there is another side to the story that is often overlooked. As Bachelet observed, trust in institutions is fading.  According to her, “People feel ignored, like democracy has not fully delivered its promise.”

A big problem is that the legitimate expectations of many people around the world are not being met through democratic processes. Instead of equality, many are witnessing growing inequality. Instead of inclusion, many are experiencing exclusion and the list goes on. This state of affairs, where ever it exists, provides fertile ground for distrust and cynicism to abound. 

If democracy is ailing, then it needs an antidote. People must demand more, especially by way of accountability, and leaders and institutions must also deliver more (and perhaps promise less) to rebuild trust in democracy.

Joel K Richards is a Vincentian national living and working in Europe in the field of international trade and development.
Email: joelkmrichards@gmail.com