Democracy as Universal Value
"The monolithic interpretation of Asian values as hostile to democracy and political rights does not bear critical scrutiny. I should not, I suppose, be too critical of the lack of scholarship supporting these beliefs, since those who have made these claims are not scholars but political leaders, often official or unofficial spokesmen for authoritarian governments."
Thus wrote Amartya Sen in July 1999, in his short essay Democracy as a Universal Value.
For some years now, it is no longer dictators and spokespeople of authoritarian governments who attack democracy, but scholars who have resurrected the fears and objections of the dying feudal world against individual freedom.
I therefore believe that the time has come to be particularly harsh towards those who, comfortably seated in the armchair of liberty, protected by liberal institutions, now lament the failure of democracy or even seek to erase its very existence.
These are mostly extremists from both the right and the left, more or less conscious cheerleaders of the authoritarian state.
I chose to begin Zombies of Marx — available on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/86hSWhw — with a quote from Demosthenes because, more than anyone else, he dedicated his life to defending his country’s freedom from the authoritarian threats coming from outside.
Today, we do not face only external threats, but also a more insidious internal one, rooted in the worst tradition of European continental culture: fascisms and communism are part of European culture and represent the flight from individual freedom in search of protection in the state.
However, those who trade freedom for security condemn themselves to a life of slavery. Those who proclaim the failure of liberal democracy, who preach the destruction of fundamental rights in the name of security, who seek to concentrate power in a few hands in the name of efficiency—these are the greatest threats to democracy.
Democracy exists, and it is a universal value. Its survival depends solely on our will. The future is not yet written.
Thus wrote Amartya Sen in July 1999, in his short essay Democracy as a Universal Value.
For some years now, it is no longer dictators and spokespeople of authoritarian governments who attack democracy, but scholars who have resurrected the fears and objections of the dying feudal world against individual freedom.
I therefore believe that the time has come to be particularly harsh towards those who, comfortably seated in the armchair of liberty, protected by liberal institutions, now lament the failure of democracy or even seek to erase its very existence.
These are mostly extremists from both the right and the left, more or less conscious cheerleaders of the authoritarian state.
I chose to begin Zombies of Marx — available on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/86hSWhw — with a quote from Demosthenes because, more than anyone else, he dedicated his life to defending his country’s freedom from the authoritarian threats coming from outside.
Today, we do not face only external threats, but also a more insidious internal one, rooted in the worst tradition of European continental culture: fascisms and communism are part of European culture and represent the flight from individual freedom in search of protection in the state.
However, those who trade freedom for security condemn themselves to a life of slavery. Those who proclaim the failure of liberal democracy, who preach the destruction of fundamental rights in the name of security, who seek to concentrate power in a few hands in the name of efficiency—these are the greatest threats to democracy.
Democracy exists, and it is a universal value. Its survival depends solely on our will. The future is not yet written.
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