If we are indeed in a “beauty contest,” let’s develop metrics and mechanisms to compare state performance rather than falling into simplistic binary choices between democracy and authoritarianism.
Instead of going to the Washington summit to test against a set of metrics dictated by the west, let’s join in a summit to define a new set of human development metrics - happiness, opportunity, optimism about the future – and test against them.
We must accept that just like democracy comes in various shades of gray so does authoritarianism. Not all democracies work for their people, and not all authoritarian regimes fail their people. We must also accept that there is no one-size-fits-all form of government. Each society is best suited to determine its best form of government based on its own unique culture, history, values and understanding of the role of the individual in society. Who decides? The people, not the empire du jour.
As China and the collective west are now in a strategic rivalry that is to some extent ideological, I want to make a point about the state of the West. America is not only a country. It’s an idea. The American idea, which developed in the middle of the 19th century, comprised three elements: that all people are created equal, that all possess unalienable rights, and that all should have the opportunity to develop and enjoy those rights. Securing those three elements required “a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.” Over time, racial, gender, ethnic and religious barriers were eroded and the western society became more pluralistic.
But now both Europe and America are in the process of over-compensation. Their need to repent for past sins – slavery in the case of America and colonialism in the case of Europeans – result in the abandonment of their core culture in exchange for the elusive vision of multiculturalism, identity politics, globalization and the rise of the world’s fastest growing religion – “new-paganism” – the amalgamation of climate hysteria, rejection of traditional family values, cancel culture, preoccupation with sexual identity, and obsession with self-gratification.
For many, this is what democracy is all about. For me it seems more like cultural anarchy and historical amnesia.
At the same time, while western democracy is confused and in search of a way, non-democratic countries increasingly realize that instead of emulating the mistakes of the west they must craft their own style of representative government, one that suits them – not the people in Brussels and Washington.
The constitution of the United States is a fascinating document. But what appealed to me the most in it is the humility expressed by its first line: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…” By using the term “a more perfect union,” rather than “a perfect union” the constitution acknowledges that democracy does not lend itself to perfection. It has an inherent capacity to improve and self-correct, but it can never reach perfection. All one can do and should do is to strive for improvement. It is true for democracies, but it is no less true for all other forms of government.
（Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. Above is the full transcript of Dr. Gal Luft’s speech for the International Forum on Democracy: the Shared Human Values” held in Beijing on December 4-5.)
