Dead-mocracy?

In 1789, a mob of incensed Parisians stormed the BastilleA fortress in Paris used as a prison by France's kings. It was stormed by an armed mob during the French Revolution. and beheaded its governor. In 2013, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians erupted in anger after their government sought closer relations with Russia. From 2010, millions of people took part in the Arab Spring, challenging the region's deep-seated authoritarianEnforcing strict obedience to authority. regimes.

Even if yesterday's strikes do not become quite so historic, they nonetheless brought one of the world's oldest democracies to its knees. Wednesday marked Britain's biggest day of industrial action in over 10 years, with teachers, public transport drivers, university lecturers, civil servants and more all walking out of work.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak is now facing fury from union leaders who accuse him of being unwilling to compromise on workers' pay.¹

Some say he is soon for the chop - which would mark Britain's third felled PM since September last year.

The strikes have been called the "symptom of a sick society". In Paris, Kyiv and across the Arab World, history's protestors lit a flame to topple authoritarianism and move towards liberal democracy. But now, many of the West's modern democratic paragonsPerfect examples of a good quality. are in crisis.

"Never assume the stability of a civilised democratic order," counsels Martin Wolf. One of the world's foremost economic thinkers, and an ardent advocateTo publicly recommend or support a particular cause.  for democratic capitalism, he has released a timely defence of its values - and a sinister warning that it may not be safe.

Wolf describes market capitalismA form of economy characterised by private property and competition between companies. and democracy as "yin and yang". Where market capitalism places some above others as a reward for merit, democracy should ensure the equality of every citizen in making laws and participating in free debate. They ensure that power - both political and economic - are distributed throughout society.¹

But democracy and capitalism are now both fraught issues.² For Wolf, the reasons for this are endless: a rise in inequality, a loss of optimism among the working and middle classes, status anxiety, fear of downward mobility, falling productivity growth and ethnic resentments among them.

"If the economy fails to serve the interests of the majority, the sense of shared citizenship will fray and demagoguesA leader who takes power by whipping up the people against the elites, usually in a cynical and self-serving way. will emerge," Wolf summarises, citing PlatoOne of the most important Ancient Greek philosophers. 's Republic. Capitalism's failures are behind modern democracy's troubles.

What is to be done? Wolf suggests some unconventional reforms to protect democracy. One is citizens' juries. He cites the example of Ireland, where a citizens' assembly established in 2016 helped to break a years' long deadlock on important constitutional issues, including abortion.³

He also suggests solutions to the "short-termism" of voting, suggesting either that mothers are given a vote for their infant children, or that voters are awarded votes according to their age, with younger people carrying up to five times more voting power than their grandparents.

His staunch beliefs come from the heart. Wolf's parents fled Nazi forces in the 1930s, and many of his family members perished in the HolocaustThe murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed. . He attributes Nazi Germany's fall into autocracyA society ruled by a single person or group with absolute power. to the "collapse of civilised order in the interwar years", when the Great Depression drove economic devastation.

"If people are not economically stable then democratic order becomes more difficult to sustain," he warns.

Yes: We need to scrap democratic capitalism altogether. Fair and equal democracies are not compatible with the volatile highs and lows of capitalism, and it is clear that democracies are not doing their job of stopping economic power from becoming too concentrated.

No: It is taking it too far to call these strikes symptoms of a "sickness." They are one small issue which would be easily solved by just boosting workers' wages.

Or... We do not need to scrap it, but we should take Wolf's suggestions of reform very seriously. Strategies such as citizens' juries or giving younger people more representation in our voting system could be game-changing.