Wednesday, November 9 2022 11:51

ArmInfo.On November 8, the Member of the RA NA Delegation to PACE, the key rapporteur on PACE Local and Regional Authorities Armen Gevorgyan gave a speech in the 10th World Forum for Democracy held in Strasbourg.

" Distinguished participants,

The developments of the past decade allow me to say that the free  world now faces fateful choices for the maintenance and development  of democracy. Such choices will either lead to firmly upholding our  democratic principles and traditions, or more clearly condoning  democratic backsliding and faking principles almost everywhere. Let  me continue by listing five, I think, key aspects that negatively  affect democratic governance and discourage full-scale civic  engagement.

1. Progressive decline in positive expectations among citizens,

2. Continuing erosion of values and ideals of free world, and spread  of double standards across Europe,

3. Accelerating disengagement of people on state level, and reducing  civic participation to local level alone.

4. Deepening social divide due to the difficulties for equal access  to quality education.

5. Unhindered rise of populist leaders along with a disturbing level  of manipulations and misinformation in social networks.

Today I will offer my observations on the first three issues and will  be glad if these can be a useful input in our discussion.

So, what has triggered the progressive decline in positive  expectations among citizens?

First and foremost, I think this is caused by the quality and content  of the political activism of modern elites. Unfortunately, today in  many European states a lot of people live with thoughts not about  better education or health care, but about how not to lose jobs or  avoid freezing.

We all live in anticipation of the Third World War or a nuclear  disaster. The decline in levels of happiness and welfare result in  less engagement, less democracy and less security in the world. In  non-European perspective the question "What is Europe?" most likely  yields to three main answers: welfare, justice and security.These  three issues also make Europe a unique continent and that attracts  migrants from all over the world. Now all these virtues of the free  world are under question - and not because of international  situation, but also caused by setbacks from democratic principles in  Europe.

What has caused the continuing erosion of values and ideals of free  world?

In the current international confrontation, the democratic traditions  and values of the free world have begun to be neglected because of  geopolitical interests. This has triggered the discourse about double  standards, and has negatively affected the soft power of our values  in the world.

Some people think that strong and uncompromising position adopted by  Europe in the Ukraine crisis is a good signal to many that ideals and  values matter. But that's not a principled position in other cases.  We must break the chain of continuous compromises towards  non-democratic and illiberal regimes to maintain commitment to our  values everywhere. Such "double standards" are most vividly being  manifested in selective attitudes towards, for example, restrictions  on freedom of speech, consistent pressures on the courts, or the  recognition of fundamental right of peoples to self-determination.  Such " double standards " are also manifested when Europe  demonstrates selective approaches towards aggression and military  occupation of sovereign lands, only because of energy security  concerns.Let's face the reality: according to the Economist  Intelligence Unit the Council of Europe comfortably houses both  mature democratic countries and younger authoritarian regimes.

How do I detect accelerating disengagement of people on state level?

There are three dimensions for civic engagement in Europe: local,  national and supra-national environments. In local level we see most  advanced and exquisite democratic mechanisms in action. In some  countries we observe emergence of "mock democratic regimes" where  people only vote on national election day - and that's it. How shall  we call the political majority, which earned its votes in free  elections, but then implements policies that have nothing to do with  their campaign pledges or electoral platforms?

It may seem that " a new normal " is when fateful decisions are made  by governments without any meaningful participation of the people -  for example, about amending the neutrality status of the state, or  changing the head of government a few times in a row without new  elections. There are many other examples, such as establishing new  political unions, new military forces on the continent, etc.

How shall we treat the situation when politicians decide what  information European shall receive and how much of it? Access to  information that has great impact on people's lives is often being  restricted by the decision of politicians. Are explanations about  "national security concerns" just enough?

Colleagues,

To conclude, let me say the following:

Contradictory processes on different levels of democratic governance  may undermine the very foundations of social trust and stability. An  alarm call about the low public approval about the system of  governance must be the currently declining levels of turnout in  elections. We must disrupt the chain of compromises, mentioned  earlier, before it cancels prosperity and security in Europe. To do  that we have to reinvent ourselves and yet again become more  principled to avoid falling victim of current authoritarian trends. "