Symptomatic treatment. Alexey Tsvetkov - about the evolution of democracy

Some representatives of the US Democratic Party, having familiarized themselves with the report of the special prosecutor Robert Muller about the possible Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin’s contacts with the Donald Trump team, came to the conclusion that he contains information about possible crimes, and resumed calls to the beginning of impeachment. In this, they diverge from the position of the speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who considers this procedure inappropriate. Firstly, the speaker is sure, the idea can lead to further polarization of the already split electorate; Secondly, the republican majority in the Senate, where an impeachment court should take place, most likely, will not allow the conviction.

But even if you distract from these circumstances, they can see a rather obvious course of thought: Trump's election is just a temporary anomaly, having got rid of which, you can return the country to the previous direction. Meanwhile, according to public opinion polls, the president’s support among the population (albeit low from the very first days after his took office) turned out to be stable and rarely falls significantly lower than the indicator of 40 percent, whatever the alleged revelations of Muller. This obstacle should be taken into account in any future presidential campaign, while the obvious field of the democratic faction in the congress after the last elections and the position of many already declared democratic presidential candidates do not really take this factor.

The traditional isolation of the United States, due to its economic power and the geographical position between the two oceans, contributes to the fact that the internal political situation is considered by many as something separate and unique, not very related to the processes that are on the other side of the Atlantic Pond. Although leading experts (such, for example, Yasha Mount from the Center for European Research at Harvard University) have long celebrated the commonality of a populist wave, which overwhelmed the entire Western (and not only) world. In particular, one of the main causes of the crisis is an alarm of a significant part of the population in connection with the real, or even imaginary, as in Hungary or Poland, the influx of migrants, this feature unites such seemingly not too close phenomena, as the expansion of the influence of the AFD right -wing party in Germany and Brexit in the United Kingdom. It is easy to notice that one of the main points of Trump’s program is the construction of a wall on the southern US border, where the president, along with his electorate, sees a threat to the country's constitutional system in an uncontrolled stream of refugees, including those who seek political asylum, and this right seeks to limit.

In order to maintain the foundations of democracy, it is necessary to establish communications between the segments of the electorate: democracy is based on mutual compromises, and not on the indestructible principles of warring camps. But practice shows that this is far from so simple and the result is often the opposite of the desired. An example of Finland does not inspire optimism. In this country, the mainstream parties tried to "tame" extreme right "true Finns " with their Euroskepetic and anti -immigration platform and introduced them into the government. As a result, the moderate faction broke off from these latter and ultimately crashed, while the “true” all with the same radical platform received 17 and a half percent of the vote in the last elections, almost as much as in 2015, and only two tenths of percent less than the defeating social democrats. The guidance of bridges actually failed.

The evolution of liberal democracy has encountered a systemic crisis, from which you can only system methods

The problem of populism is complicated by the multiplicity of its incentive motives, outside the EU and the United States, immigration is not always in the spotlight. In Brazil, the reason for the victory in the election of Zhair Bolsonaru, a fan of military coups and a fighter with feminism and LGBT, was mass corruption. And already a completely radical case - Ukraine. The losers of the supporters of Petro Poroshenko (according to the results of the vote - only a quarter of the electorate) accuse the rest of the population of the so -called Little Russia, that is, inadequate hostility to the Russian aggressor. Here I recall the aphorism of Bertolt Brecht, who offered the GDR government to choose a new people, since it is dissatisfied with the current one. In fact, of course, it is difficult to assume that the vast majority of citizens of Ukraine considered the election of a comic actor, the vote was, without a doubt, the protest: Poroshenko practically ignored one of the most important problems of the country, corruption, replacing it with battles on the cultural front with Yandex and Russian social networks. As a result, according to the IMF, Ukraine bypassed Moldova in an inconsistent struggle for first place in poverty in Europe.

This whole complex of problems clearly demonstrates that tactical techniques, whether it is impeachment in the United States or a re -referendum in the United Kingdom, cannot be overcome. And, of course, measures offered by the left wing of the US Democratic Party will be even less effective: even if they are aimed at real economic problems, the label of the "socialism" under which they are presented, only scare away the conservative part of the electorate. In addition, the problems in most of the countries of the countries are clearly not reduced to economic, as the indestructible support of Trump is convincingly demonstrates - despite the difficulties caused by the undermining of international trade. The widespread skepticism of the right flank, including its formed part, is also difficult to write off with respect to global climate change due to the economy.

Apparently, the evolution of liberal democracy has encountered a systemic crisis, which can be released only by systemic methods. But no one has yet suggested a serious recipe, as if they tried to treat pneumonia to treat with plasters and aspirin.

Alexey Tsvetkov - publicist and political commentator

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the editorial office