[FR] Democratic disruption

It is not only the climate that is changing, but democracy too. The foul air blowing in Italy ahead of the 4 March elections is the most recent illustration of this. The erosion of the culture of compromise across the Rhine, betrayed by the long delays in forming a new grand coalition, and the rise of the xenophobic AfD party, are further examples. The same is true of the Austrian far right’s entry into government, which has been virtually ignored. These developments are too recent to be included in the latest essay* by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi (Vice-President of our Institute), which is based on three more spectacular cases that are still worth reflecting on: Brexit, Donald Trump’s victory and the stunning French presidential election.

While distinguishing each of these gripping and suspenseful elections, with a happy outcome in the French case, from one chapter to the next, the international lawyer sees everywhere the imperative to ‘reconcile popular sentiment and democratic ideals’. The two are no longer able to coexist politically in these three countries, despite their solidly anchored democratic institutions. The United States and the United Kingdom – and to a lesser extent France – have, on the contrary, until now embodied ‘liberal democracies’, whose two inseparable pillars, as the author reminds us, are the rule of the majority, whether parliamentary or sometimes referendary, combined with respect for the rule of law. In other words, this is coupled with ‘constitutional liberalism’, which aims to guarantee civil liberties, pluralism and the independence of the press and the judiciary. The current crisis in our democracies is the result of tension between these two pillars, with the former threatening to crush the latter. ‘The will of the people cannot be democratic if it tramples on the rule of law,’ he sums up.

To guard against this, Laurent Cohen-Tanugi’s essay is a plea for representative democracy, which the vitality of initiatives, movements and other forms of citizen participation must not stifle ‘in the name of a romantic and radical vision of the democratic ideal and citizen intelligence’. Knowing, to quote Rousseau, that ‘the general will can err’, the author also rehabilitates the necessity of parliamentary activity, social dialogue, case law and independent expertise – something that the Jacques Delors Institute can only emphasise! – as well as rationality and argumentation supported by the authority of facts.

These are welcome reminders in an era of fake news and other attempts at ideological manipulation or destabilisation of elections. In order to “control the digital threat”, the lawyer argues unequivocally for a return to paper voting where its replacement undermines the reliability of the ballot, for the regulation of political advertising on the internet during election periods, and for more fact-checking.

More broadly, by entitling his book ‘Résistances’ (Resistance), the lawyer calls for action to restore to a ‘damaged democracy’ a taste for reasoned debate, confidence in mediation and intermediary bodies, and a sense of ‘collective duties’ to be balanced with individual rights and concern for the common good. Not to mention a reminder of the basic rules of good manners in a democracy: ‘civility and moderation in discourse and debate (…) probity, clarity and pedagogy towards the electorate’. More profoundly, Laurent Cohen-Tanugi calls for ‘a reinvestment in the political function by a new generation of citizens’.

In this context, the author urges Europe to ‘offer an alternative, multilateralist and cooperative model of democratic development to the rest of the world’. It is regrettable, however, that this noble mission is limited to this single concluding mention and that the role of the European Union as a safeguard against encroachments on the rule of law is not further developed at a time when European institutions are currently facing such challenges, as in Poland.