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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
3 6 September 2016
W
alking around the complex of rocks,
Doric columns and temples of the Acrop-
olis in Athens evokes the debt Western
Civilisation owes to the ancient Graeco-
Roman world. It was here that the
Athenian City State developed the first and most
sophisticated philosophical notions of how a democ-
racy should work. It remains remarkable how much of
democracy itself is attributable to this world as distinct
from to the more modern world where the franchise
took root and popular politics was adopted and adapted
by nation states. In essence much of contemporary
democracy does not reflect modernity and is ill
equipped to deal with exploitative populist efforts that
cut across its fundaments.
For example, the ancient Greeks were so idealistic
that they saw no separation between politics and phi-
losophy, culture, the arts and theatre. In fact their
notion of democracy saw philosophy and the body poli-
tic as inseparable twins. In order for democracy to
survive it had to live in close proximity to
the world of philosophy and that of the
intellect. In the modern world that we
now live in this umbilical link between
philosophy and the world of politics has
been utterly broken.
It is hard to be precise as to when
these two worlds separated but it is clear
that the cleavage is such as to render
latter day democracy incomprehensible
and irrelevant to many citizens.
After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and communism
there was a public clamour to declare an unprecedented
victory for the forces of free-
dom encapsulated by liberal
democracy and free-market
capitalism. The enormous
recession of 2008, which leaves a
long economic and social shadow and
reduced the number of countries that can be described
as democracies, has put paid to the heady optimism
and ambitious ideas heavily promoted by writers such
as Francis Fukuyama.
Since the collapse of the wall there has been an
extraordinary burgeoning of trade, investment and
human contact powered on a global basis by adventur-
ous risk capital and new, seemingly liberating online
technologies that facilitate commercial and social
transactions within the blink of an eye. The political
class, with its associated elites, has been left stranded
in the wake of these fast-moving, converging and
engulfing technologies like the internet, social media,
instant (and sometimes illusory) capital transfer. The
political class have a mandate to manage and control
these developments but as ever the regulation is chas-
ing after the market reality. Modern democratic states
are very unsuited to handling these changes being
rooted in the ancient world and the world of nation
states - both epochs that are now past.
Modern day Greece serves as a good example of how
the nation state model of democracy cannot deliver for
its citizens. The country has been pulverised by the
financial crisis which began in the US and rapidly
exported its wealth everywhere. Since 2008 Greece has
been subjected to a force-fed austerity programme,
multiple bail-out packages, and the near destruction of
Teetering
Democracy and globalisation
are fragile
by Conor lenihan
For democracy in
ancient Athens to
survive it had to live
in close proximity
to the world of
philosophy
OPINION
Conor
lenihan
REAlPOlITIK
OPINION
September 2016 3 7
its entire banking system.
The main Greek Parties that dominated poli-
tics since the departure of the military, of left
and right ( Pasok and New Democracy) have
been swept away in favour of a street-led-pro-
test party headed up by Prime Minister Tspiras.
Greece has been scarred.
The magnificent streetscapes of the capital
Athens have been desecrated by vulgar and
ubiquitous graffiti - testimony to pervasive radi-
calisation. There is no public will to remove it
and the authorities –animated by Syriza –
appear slow to remove it lest it becomes a vivid
reminder that the anarcho-revolution they
began has now run into the sand. SyrIza prom-
ised all sorts of resistance to austerity, foreign
diktat, Brussels bureaucracy, the ECB, and of
course Germany. Two years on and it looks like
they took on more than they could chew. Quite
the opposite to what was promised has
occurred. Even Syriza's high-profile former
Finance Minister Varoufakis has given up the
ghost and formed his own party.
A former ministerial colleague of mine from
Greece confided in me during my visit that not-
withstanding the volte face in the confrontation
with Brussels Tspiras has managed to make a
connection to the ordinary Greeks public. Nev-
ertheless the ones I have met here remain
ineradicably cynical about politics. Many feel
that Syriza is simply serving its apprenticeship
and that it is only a matter of time before it
becomes as self-serving as its predecessors.
Greece has witnessed enormous public cor-
ruption and bureaucratic incompetence that is
almost the civic mirror image of what happens
in the Northern European core countries of the
EU. The economy also has a huge black econ-
omy of private and cash transactions. On a visit
eight years ago, pre-
crisis, I was surprised
at the difficulty of find-
ing a retailer that
would accept credit
cards. It is now far
worse and if there is a
credit card machine in
situ, more often than
not, the shopkeeper
will claim that the
machine is broken. A
businessman friend
informs me it is quite
common for a BMW car
to be bought with €70k cash as part of the
transaction. Given the governments they have
got there is a natural reluctance to pay taxes.
The miracle is that the Greek economy and
democracy has managed even to survive the
economic crisis. This, my business friend
reminds me, would not have happened were it
not for the black economy. When all else failed
it was the only capitalist show in town. The
events have been a crushing blow to ordinary
Greeks, in particular because of their pride in
their illustrious past. The Germans and their
own political class have taken the lion's share
of the blame.
The extent to which debilitating terms and
bailout conditions were imposed on Greece
shows both the strengths and weaknesses of
the Eurozone system. The
fight had to be taken to the
streets but was ultimately
resolved in the joyless back
offices of Brussels, Frankfurt
and Berlin. It was probably a
mistake for the Greeks to
depict Merkel as a latter-day
Nazi but the antipathy
remains real. The clear lesson
from the Greek crisis is that
sovereignty no longer exclu-
sively found at the nation
state level even in the birth-
place of democracy. Many
voters from Greece, to the UK
and the United States feel
aggrieved that power no
longer resides at the purely
local level.
Ironically, the Greeks are the country that got
lucky twice. They were fast-tracked into EU
membership out of a sense or fear that they
might all too easily relapse back into a military
dictatorship. They got lucky again when the
euro currency was created as, depending on
your viewpoint, their official figures were either
deliberately overstated or overlooked, by Euro-
pean officials anxious to include them. Ideas of
Fortress Europe and overweening fears about
Russia and the Balkans also played in their
favour. Luck may be
again on the Greek
side. The migration
crisis and fears about
instability in Turkey
may lead to a renewed
effort by the EU to keep
them sweet.
Between the 3rd and
5th centuries A.D.
Graeco-Roman civili
-
sation was subject to
enormous stress. In
Rome there was a
period of 70 years with
20 different Emperors. A long period of decline
began with Barbarian incursions on the edges
of Empire. Eventually the Barbarians sacked
Athens and Rome. A sophisticated culture and
empire was overthrown. ‘Western Civilisation’
or democracy is enduring the incipience of a
similar insurgence today. The defenders of lib-
eral democracy and globalised capitalism are
under attack.
The traditional western powers no longer
own, or have a mandate to operate, the multi-
lateral system effectively. This is not just
because of opposition on the streets. The likes
of Brazil, Russia, China and India are flexing
their power. They have scooped very few of the
spoils of the multilateral system and so owe it
no loyalty. The traditional powers still dominate
global organisations like the UN, the World
Bank, the IMF and the WHO. It is extraordinary
how weak the existing global institutions have
become in the era of globalisation. It makes no
sense. They are atrophying
due to lack of interest at the
fractious domestic political
level and the connivance of
large corporations – Apple is
a case in point - which do not
want these institutions to
exercise too much control.
Voter insurgencies in
Greece, the UK, the US,
Brazil and even in the Phil
-
lipines are happening
because of the slow-motion
erosion of democratic values
due to intense change. Cen-
trist politicians have taken
technological advances and hyper capital as
agents for good without ever looking at the per-
sonal effects these mercurial forces toll or of
their profound impact on democracy itself.
The Barbarians of the modern world are the
populist political movements that mobilise
popular grievance against globalisation and
pretend that there can be a purely national solu-
tion to the problems that it poses. They are like
the proud Greek retailer who claims that the
credit machine is broken and he can only accept
cash. The technology and infrastructure of glo-
balisation cannot be easily unplugged. Few
actually believe Donald Trump when he says he
will rid the states of all Muslims, build a wall
with Mexico and order US corporations based
abroad to return home. The fact that he has sur-
vived so long with this message is indicative of
the softness of the support for the political
system he claims to undermine.
The fact that SyrIza continue in power in
Greece shows that populist movements can
accommodate the realities of power and the
global status quo. If both Trump in the US and
Le Pen in France are elected it will not signal the
end of democracy as we know it. However it will
be a harbinger of a new definition of democracy
and governance that will transmogrify compla-
cent global institutions. The proponents of
Western style democracy must now prove that
globalisation is compatible with a thriving local
democracy and that reformed political institu-
tions can bring real benefits to citizens. Elites
have driven it until now but citizens must drive
the next phase if globalisation has a future.
The multilateral
system is
atrophying due
to lack of interest
at the fractious
domestic political
level and the
connivance of large
corporations
Teetering and under attack
