When Form 2220 Governments 2023-2024

Music. Applause! The rise of extremist parties and political populism, protests, the poor economic ance of some democracies, and the messiness of democratic politics stand in stark contrast to the seeming tidiness of societies and better economic ance of some non-democracies. Applause! That is the democratically elected parliament of Taiwan and their legislators getting very excited about a recent budget bill debate. This and other recent global events have made frustrated citizens of democracies ask the question: is democracy failing to deliver the goods? Is democracy in crisis? Is democracy at a tipping point? I remember very, very clearly as a young kid growing up in Manila, Philippines when the military and the soldiers with their tanks rolled into my neighborhood streets to set up a checkpoint. President Ferdinand Marcos had declared martial law and established his dictatorship. I remember very, very clearly when my father, together with the neighborhood men, were all called down to line up on the streets, being vetted and patted down by armed soldiers. As a little kid, the fear of being so helpless in that kind of situation is simply unbearable. Yes, democratic politics is messy. Our demands are so many, and we're very noisy. Our economic ance is not particularly great. But democracy is still the best system of large-scale governance anywhere. Surveys have shown us globally that citizens of democracies support their democracy. Even in Taiwan, this young democracy, where we just saw that very interesting clip journalists love to report, that leaves Taiwanese kind of shaking their heads and even some nostalgic about the authoritarian era. But surveys upon surveys conducted by my colleagues at Taiwan's election study center show that Taiwanese citizens are very supportive of their democracy. A global survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017 also shows that...