With over 40 elections set for the United States, United Kingdom, and a host of other nations in 2024, U.S. corporate media giant Bloomberg is questioning whether inviting regular citizens to vote for representative governments really serves “democracy”.
In an article by Tobin Harshaw, a Bloomberg opinion editor who previously edited the opinion section at for The New York Times, readers are warned that ‘2024 Is the Year of Elections and That’s a Threat to Democracy’.
Harshaw notes: “41% of the world’s population is having major elections this year. Yay democracy! Right? Not really.” He argues that because people may exercise their democratic right to vote for “extremist populist parties – mostly right-wing,” that elections are not good for democracy.
Weighing the “chances everything turns out alright – somebody other than Trump wins the U.S. presidency; the UK regains its senses [and reverses Brexit]; China is dissuaded from invading its ‘rogue province’; the Middle East finds peace; and dictatorships fall left and right,” the Bloomberg editor cites writers John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge as estimating that the “liberal world” has a ten percent chance of prevailing.
“EEK! ” writes Harshaw, who is almost 60 years old, adding: “Big Yikes!”
This year could see Donald Trump become President-elect again, national conservative and populist parties greatly increase their presence in the European Parliament of the European Union, and discontent over mass migration grow the Flemish nationalist presence in the Belgian legislature to the point that the country breaks up.
2024 will also see elections held in Russia – but not Ukraine, as Volodymyr Zelensky has suspended them – and Taiwan, where victory for the Democratic Progressive Party could increase the chances of a Chinese invasion.
show less
