Latest news with #JohnKeane
Indian Express
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Vandita Mishra writes: Not just about the Emergency
Dear Express Reader, This has been a week of commemoration of the Emergency as a cataclysmic event in the distant past. This has been a week to acknowledge that the shadows cast by the suspension of democracy, 1975-1977, are long. Many of the challenges for a democratic politics are the same, and they have been routinised — the weaponisation of laws to shrink spaces for dissent and free expression, a politics of labelling and distrust, attempts by the Executive to undermine and subdue other institutions like the Media and the Court, demonisation of the Opposition. Other challenges are new, because in its long journey, democracy itself stands at a different milestone. At that time, when India's democracy was less than 30 years old, Emergency was the result of, and it contributed to, a waning of brightness — it capped a draining of the lingering idealism of a newly independent nation that had pledged to be not just a representative democracy, but one that abides by rules of the game laid down in the wise and layered Constitution it gave itself. The Constitution set up a mosaic of monitory institutions to scrutinise power, enforce accountability, enable checks and balances — political theorist John Keane has christened this new historical form of democracy, worldwide in the post 1945 era, as 'monitory democracy'. Today, 50 years after the Emergency, India's monitory democracy is showing signs of wear and tear. It is also dealing with the pressures of the age of communicative abundance. In a global context, Keane writes that 'historical comparisons show that the combination of monitory democracy and communicative abundance is without precedent. It produces permanent flux, an unending restlessness driven by complex combinations of different interacting players and institutions, permanently pushing and pulling, heaving and straining, sometimes working together, at other times in opposition to one another…' Even as this combination makes democracy more exciting and viral, it also has corrosive effects. It breeds cynicism, disaffection and distrust vis a vis Parliaments and parties, governing institutions and leaders. Parliamentary democracy is being publicly 'wrong-footed', says Keane, there is 'decay amidst abundance'. In India and elsewhere, this fraught juncture is now the site of the rise of a populist politics. 'We the people' becomes 'Me the people', there is a relentless search for the Other and the enemy within, and the winner takes all. The populist moment seizes on the prevalent disillusions, as much as it speaks to rising aspirations, to frame an agenda of anti-elitism. It also propagates a politics of anti-pluralism. The week in which 50 years of Emergency were marked ended with a rising — and disquietingly anti-pluralist — clamour that seems to give the lie to the self-righteous lip service to democracy over the last few days by the BJP-led establishment. An RSS general secretary set the ball rolling, asking for a discussion on whether the words 'socialist' and 'secular', added to the Constitution's Preamble by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency, should be retained. He was joined by the Vice President, who said that the change to the Preamble was a 'sacrilege to the spirit of sanatan' and the words were 'nasoor', a festering wound. A BJP chief minister chimed in: 'Socialism' and 'secularism' are Western concepts, have no place in Indian civilisation, he said. And two Union ministers added the weight of their office to the argument. This, when successive post-Emergency regimes have not reversed the Preamble amendment, even as other changes have been rolled back, and the Supreme Court has upheld it. Secularism was described as a 'basic feature' in the 13-judge bench Kesavananda Bharati ruling even before the Emergency-era amendment, and the non-justiciable Directive Principles of State Policy have been invoked to recognise that 'socialism' was an ideal for those who framed a Constitution for a society of great inequalities. It is evident that the real aversion is not to 'socialist' — in fact, on the broad direction of the economy, all post-liberalisation governments have looked the same, more or less. This choreographed controversy is about 'secular'. The Narendra Modi government, now in its third term, has presided over the steady challenging of the constitutional commitment to secularism as equal respect for all religions, and a spreading Hindu-isation of public institutions and spaces. The PM's conduct of the rituals of consecration of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya in January 2024 marked a turning point. It underlined the message that, amid growing polarisation, the religion of the majority community would now be a visible marker of the life of a diverse and multi-religious nation, demanding deference, if not prostration from all. So, at the end of a week like this one, is a question: Who is responsible for ensuring that the Emergency does not come again? Who is expected to take on the burden of an anti-Emergency politics that guards against attempts to chip away at pluralism and democracy? In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 'democracy-in-danger' and 'Constitution-under-siege' became electoral slogans and while the outcome saw a whittling down of the BJP government's numbers, it was certainly no mandate for the Opposition. Does that mean that the people don't worry, or worry enough, about the spectre of diminishing democracy? It is possible that for a people cynical about power politics, democracy's predicament is not a trumping argument because they see no good guys out there. And that for the optimistic and aspirational, the system seems strong and self-correcting enough, does not require their ministrations. It could be that when voters feel disrespected, or 'dis-esteemed', they are more likely to grant governments the licence to rule arbitrarily, and to look for strongmen with a steel fist. Or it could be, simply, that for all the talk about democracy-in-danger, democracy never really was on the election menu, because the Opposition was unable to make a case that was eloquent or vivid enough. Whatever be the real story of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the onus is not, it should not be, on the vulnerable voter. Protecting democracy's letter and spirit is also a task too large to be left only to the Opposition — in fact, it must not be seen as a project that is partisan. Keeping democracy whole requires influential institutions and powerful stakeholders to take ownership of it, instead of putting it only on the Opposition or passing the buck to 'the people'. Till next week, Vandita
South China Morning Post
21-03-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
The decline of the American empire: how Trumpism threatens democracy worldwide
In this second instalment of his two-part commentary, John Keane, Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney, explains how the widespread uncertainty and chaos triggered by the Trump administration reveals the dynamics of an empire's retreat and decline – and why this administration poses a serious threat to democracy both at home and abroad. Read part one here . Advertisement There was a time, especially in the years after 1945, when America's global reputation rode high. The empire had since the 19th century prided itself on its support for 'democracy', but after its World War II victories it had a free hand in playing the role of defender-in-chief of democracy and stoic guardian of the entire 'free world'. In practice, it did some impressive things. In Europe , for instance, the Marshall Plan introduced the continent to American ways of life and helped build the foundations of a new middle class. America stood for economic growth and shared prosperity, high-quality roads, education, healthcare and other public services, and a belief in the principle that citizens are entitled to choose their own government. In popular culture, there was the allure of Coca-Cola Hollywood , jazz, the all-shook-up Elvis Presley, Motown, Marilyn Monroe, Woody Allen, the rebel poetry of Bob Dylan, the melancholy magnetism of blue grass, gospel, soul and country music, the good-times fluff of the Beach Boys and the Monkeys. Even when things weren't going well, America seemed reformable, capable of doing better. Israel , Tunisia , Greece , Malaysia , But the times they are changing, and not for the better. The world is awash with bad news about the United States , its double standards, big-money politics, gun violence, loud-mouthed leadership, second-rate infrastructure and general social decadence. There's of course Superbowl rap king Kendrick Lamar and the private-jet owning, cash-grabbing, fan-based 'my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of Congressman' pop-star businesswoman Taylor Swift . And it's true that in some countries, Poland Japan and the Philippines included, a majority of citizens say they hold a 'favourable opinion' of the US. Elsewhere, however, research shows that in China, Turkey Australia and France , public opinions about the US are split, or potentially hostile. Unsurprisingly, the research also shows that in countries such as Iran Egypt and Afghanistan and, more generally in the wider Arab and Muslim world, millions of people say they loathe American imperial power and its ways of life. They think of it as a freak show. Mere mention of the US and its 'democracy' tempts people to curse and spit. These research findings are significant because they show that the light of democracy and freedom on America's hill is fading. On the home front, whatever they say, Donald Trump and his supporters confirm the trend. They care little or nothing for democracy. Despotism is their thing. Constitutional niceties make no sense. Hero worship and demagoguery matter. Its rules are plain. Flood the zone. Strengthen executive power. Cross red lines. Defy existing laws and legal precedents. Bewilder citizens by issuing non-stop executive orders. Abolish guardrails and watchdogs. Arbitrarily dismiss inspectors general , judges and other guardians of public integrity. Reduce the power of legislatures to appropriate tax money and determine its spending. Trample on workers' rights. End birthright citizenship. Freeze research, educational, social support and foreign aid programmes. Silence dissenters. Expect unquestioning loyalty from civil servants. Denounce journalists and experts who expose misconduct, corruption, and malfeasance as 'far left' purveyors of fake news and partisans of the 'deep state'. A Republican supporter holds a 'Save America' sign at a Trump rally in 2022. Photo: AP 'Imperium militare' Democracy promotion is also near the bottom of the fading empire's list of global priorities. Treating the so-called rules-based order as a sham and practising bully politics backed by a might-makes-right mentality are the new gold standard. Which is a key reason why America, foolishly, is resorting to military force as a prime solution to its mounting global ills.
