The official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the report "Democracy in the United States". Photo/ Screenshot of the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
According to Xinhua News Agency, the Website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a report entitled "The Situation of American Democracy" on December 5, presenting the truth about American democracy through facts in American democratic politics and expert views. A day earlier, the Information Office of the State Council of China issued a white paper entitled "Democracy in China", emphasizing that democracy is a common value of all mankind and an important concept that the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people have unswervingly adhered to.
On December 9, the US Biden administration will convene the so-called Global Democracy Summit, the goal of which is nothing more than to build democracy into a tool for global strategic competition and game in the United States in the coming period, blow democracy as an ideological rallying cry, strategicize, instrumentalize, and even absolutize democracy, and advocate the dualistic opposition and game between democracy and authoritarianism.
American democracy
It has become a black hole in national governance
The "State of American Democracy" report presents the decaying American democracy, the alienated and polarized American democratic politics has in fact become a black hole in the governance of the United States, the repair of the decaying political order in the United States is the "real problem", and the global democracy summit is just a performance of the Biden administration to "carve a boat and seek a sword" in the era of pluralistic power centers.
Biden has been in office for nearly 11 months, and the outline of "Bidenism" has basically emerged, one of which is to prove that democracy works, democracy can win the competition with authoritarianism, from another point of view, Biden's statement undoubtedly conveys a sense of anxiety and frustration about the decline of democracy, especially the impact of the riots on Capitol Hill on January 6 this year is huge.
Not only did Biden not get the approval of more than 74 million American voters, but he also entered the White House under the guise of election fraud. The Capitol Hill riots were arguably even a failed mini-insurgency and coup. Former President George W. Bush was deeply ashamed that such a thing could only happen in the "banana republic." Of course, the Capitol Hill rebellion confirmed that the United States is a "banana republic."
Although Biden won the election, he has not shaken off Trump's shadow so far. In the shadow of the failure of democracy, the Biden administration actually raised the banner of democracy and used it as a tool of U.S. foreign policy. Judging from the more than 100 delegates invited by the United States, the United States does not have the standard of democracy, and it seems that the "camp" of democracy is relatively large, and some professional institutions in the United States have been discussing the decline and failure of democracy.
It can be said that the Biden administration does not have the slightest reverence for democracy, and as long as it meets the strategic needs of the United States, the United States will pull it into the so-called "democratic camp". Isn't this an alienation and metamorphosis of American democratic ideals?
Bullets flew through the ballot papers
It is an extreme symbol of democratic alienation in the United States
Democracy is regarded by the Biden administration as a new "civilized standard", and as for what democracy is, the Biden administration does not care. From the perspective of history and reality, democracy is a form of human social polity, a political practice, and it is not compatible with the "standard of civilization".
In Aristotle's political theory, democracy is not an excellent form of governance, but is very susceptible to mob politics. In the millennia following Greek democracy, the discourse of democracy largely disappeared, even synonymous with a form of bad government. It was not until modern times that democratic discourse returned, but representative democracy was fundamentally different from the democracy of the Greek period.
After the founding of the United States, democracy was not a priority political pursuit, and freedom, individual rights, and especially the rights of the rich were the core of the American political system. The systematic discourse on American democracy is of Tocqueville in France, and Tocqueville's American democracy is a product of the social structure of small communities in the agrarian age.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian: "American-style democracy" has long been a water without a source and a wood without a root. Photo/CCTV screenshot
Can this set of American democracy be designed to withstand the multiple shocks of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization? The chaos of American democracy shows that the American political system has experienced serious decline, and reforming and repairing its own system is the top priority of the United States.
Under industrialization and urbanization, the social, economic, and ethnic structure and foundation on which American democracy depends have undergone earth-shaking changes, especially after universal suffrage after World War I, democratic politics has evolved into vote politics, and elections have become the only standard of democracy. The vote became the only "justice" of democratic politics.
In the 2020 election, the US electoral system experienced a full range of extreme pressure, and the final result was that the election results were confirmed under the witness of the National Guard's bullets, bullets and votes flew wildly, which was an extreme symbol of democratic alienation in the United States.
Democratic politics becomes vote politics, vote politics is alienated into money politics, interest group politics, in order to get votes, constituency division, voter consciousness control has reached a very fine point. Under the electoral system, the outcome of the general election is almost determined by more than 100,000 votes, compared with more than 100 million votes, this election has nothing to do with public opinion.
Vote politics plays a fission and conflict under the extreme competition, rather than the integration of politics, class, race, gender, immigration and other identity labels have been mobilized by electoral politics, forming a more intense and tense confrontation, resulting in polarization politics, veto politics, the clash of civilizations does not occur between countries, but becomes part of the daily life of Americans, the "black life" movement and vicious attacks against Asians, behind which are "non-racial" confrontation and game.
Under the fission of democracy, party politics has evolved into veto politics, and the competition between Republicans and Democrats has turned to "war", and some American scholars are worried that the United States will fall into civil war in the future.
U.S. governance
It's just a special case in Western countries
American democracy has been alienated and chaotic, but the United States is trying to "globalize" American democracy and promote American democracy by force and war. The wars waged in the Middle East over the past 20 years have been an experiment in "democratic transformation", and the turmoil in the political and regional order of the Middle East countries is direct evidence of the fiasco of this "democratic transformation". Biden also said after the ROUT of U.S. forces from Kabul that the use of force to rebuild the country should stop.
The world is an era of pluralistic power centers, the experience and wisdom accumulated by mankind over the past 10,000 years of political history are reasonable, and each country needs to explore a way of governance that conforms to its own and the trend of the times. American democracy is an aspect of American national governance, and American governance is a special case in Western countries, which is only a part of human society, a moment in human history.
Under the great changes of the past century, the top priority of all countries is to discuss the way of national governance under globalization, urbanization, industrialization and informatization under the premise of mutual respect and equal coexistence, and the decaying American democracy is not enough and should not be the main topic of such discussion.
Beijing News special writer | Sun Xingjie (Deputy Director and Professor, Institute of International Relations, Jilin University)
Edit | Chi Daohua
Intern | Wu Xin
Proofreading | Dangerous