Can democracy exist without trust Ivan Krastev

I’m afraid I’m one of those Pickers you

hope you’re not going to meet at that

first I don’t have a mobile so I’m on

the safe side secondly political series

who is going to talk about the crisis of

democracy is probably not the most

exciting topic you can think about and

plus I’m not going to give you any

answers I’m much more trying to add to

some of the questions we are talking

about and one of the things that I want

to question is this very popular hope

these days the transparency and openness

can restore the trust in democratic

institutions there is one more reason

for you to be suspicious about me you

people the Church of Tet a very

optimistic community basically you

believe in complexity but not in a bigot

as you have been told I’m Bulgarian and

according to the surveys we among the

most pessimistic people in the world The

Economist magazine recently wrote an

article covering one of the recent

studies on happiness and the title was

the happy done happy and the Bulgarians

so now when you know what to expect

let’s give you the story and this is a

rainy election day in a small country

that can be my country but could be also

your country and because of the rain

till four o’clock in the afternoon

nobody went to the polling stations but

then the rain stopped people went to

vote and to end the votes have been

counted the three-fourths of the people

have voted with a blank ballots the

government in the opposition they have

been simply paralyzed because you know

what to do about the protests you know

whom to RS come to negotiate with but

what to do about people who are voting

with the blank ballots so the government

decided to have the elections once again

in this type even a greater number

eighty-three percent of the people voted

with the blank ballots basically they

went to the ballot boxes to tell that

they have nobody to vote for this is the

opening of a beautiful novel by joseph

serumaga old seeing but in my view it

very well captures part of the problem

that we have with democracy in Europe

these days on one level nobody is

questioning the democracy is the best

form of government democracy is the only

game in town the problem is that many

people start to believe that it is not a

game worth playing for the last 30 years

political scientists has observed that

there is a constant decline in electoral

turnout and the people who are least

interested to vote are the people whom

you expect a going to vote to gain most

out of voting I’m in the unemployed down

the privileged this is a major issue

because especially now with the economic

crisis you can see that the trust in

politics that in trusting democratic

institutions was really destroyed

according to the latest survey being

done by the European Commission

eighty-nine percent of the citizens of

Europe believe that there is a growing

gap between the opinion of the

policymakers and the opinion of the

public only eighteen percent of the

Italians and fifteen percent of Greeks

believed that their vote matters what

basically people start to understand

that they can change governments but

they cannot change policies and the

question which I want to ask is the

following how it happened that we are

living in a societies which are much

freer than ever before we had more

rights we can travel easier we have

access to more information at the same

time the trust in our democratic

institutions basically has collapsed so

basically i want to ask foot went right

and what went wrong in these fifty years

when we talk about democracy until start

with what went right

and the first thing that went right was

of course these five revolutions which

in my view very much change the way

we’re living and deepened our democratic

experience and the first was the

cultural and social revolution of the

1960s which put the individual at the

center of politics it was the human

rights moment basically this was also a

major outbreak a culture of dissent a

culture of basically non-conformism

which was not known before so I do

believe the different things like that

very much the children of 68

nevertheless it most of us he had been

even not born there but after that you

have the market revolution of the 1980s

and nevertheless that many people on the

left tries to hate it the truth is that

it was very much the market revolution

that sent the message the government

does not know better and you have a much

more choice driven societies and of

course you have the 1989 the end of

communism the entered the Cold War and

it was the birth of the global world did

you get the internet and this is not the

audience to which I’m going to preach to

what extent the internet empowered

people it has changed the way we are

communicating and basically we’re

viewing politics the very idea of

political community totally has changed

and I’m going to name one more

revolution and this is the revolution in

brain sciences which totally changed the

way we understand how people are taking

decisions so this is what went right but

if you are going to see what went wrong

we’re going to end up with the same five

revolutions because first you have 1960s

and 1970s cultural and social revolution

which in a certain way destroy the idea

of a collective purpose the very idea

all this collective nouns that we have

been taught about nation class family we

start to like they were stinky

premiering at all all this was very much

under attack and it is so difficult to

engage people in politics which they do

believe that what really matters is

where they personally stand

and you have the market revolution of

the 1980s and the huge increase of

inequality and societies remember till

1970s the spread of democracy has always

been accompanied by the decline of

inequality the more democratic our

societies have been the more than equal

they have been becoming now we have the

reverse tendency the spread of democracy

now is very much accompanied by the

increase inequality and I find this very

much disturbing when we’re talking about

what’s going on right and wrong with

democracy these days until go to the

1989 something that basically don’t

expect that anybody is going to

criticize but many are going to tell you

listen it was the end of the Cold War

that aired the social contract between

their leads and the people in Western

Europe when the Soviet Union was still

there the rich and the powerful they

needed the people because they feared

them now they leads basically have been

liberated they’re very mobile you cannot

text them and basically they don’t fear

the people so as a result of it you have

this very strange situation in which

they leads basically got out of the

control of the voters so this is not by

accident that the voters are not

interested to vote anymore and when we

talk about the Internet yes it’s true

internet-connected all of us but we also

know that internet created this equal

chambers and political ghettos in which

for all your life you can state with the

political community you belong to and

it’s becoming more and more difficult to

understand the people who are not like

you I know that many people here you

splendidly speaking about the digital

world and the possibility for

cooperation but you could see what the

digital world you have done to the

American politics these days this is

also parked the results of the internet

revolution this is the other side of the

things that we like and when you go to

the brain sciences what political

consultants weren’t from the brain

scientist is don’t talk me about ideas

anymore don’t talk me about policy pro

what really matter is basically to

manipulate the emotions of the people

and to have this very strongly to the

extent that even if you see when we talk

about revolutions these days these

revolutions are not named any more

around ideologies or ideas before

revolutions used to have ideological

names they could be communists they

could be liberal they could be fascist

or Islamic now the revolutions are

called under the media which is most

used you have facebook revolutions

Twitter’s revolutions the content

doesn’t matter anymore the problem is

the media and saying this because one of

my major point is what went right is

also what went wrong and when we’re now

trying to see how we can change the

situation when basically we’re trying to

see what can be done about democracy we

should keep this ambiguity in mind

because probably some of the things that

we love most are going to be also the

things that can hurt us most this date

is very kind of popular to believe that

this push for transparency this kind of

a combination between active citizens

new technologies and much more

transparency friendly regulation can

restore trust in politics you believe

that when you have these new

technologies and people who are ready to

use this it can make much more difficult

for the government’s July it’s going to

be more difficult for them to steal and

probably it’s even going to be more

difficult for them to kill this is

probably true but I do believe that we

shall be also very clear that now when

we put the transparency at the center of

politics where the messages it is the

transparency stupid transparency is not

about restoring trust in institutions

transparency is a politics as management

of mistrust we’re assuming that our

societies are going to be based on

mistrust and by the way mistress was

always very important for democracy this

is why you have check and balances this

is why basically you have all this

creative minstrels between the

representatives and those whom they

represent but when politics

is only management of mistrust then I’m

very glad that 1984 have been mentioned

now we are going to have 1984 in Reverse

it’s not going to be the Big Brother

watching kill is going to be we being

the Big Brother watching the political

class but if this day give a free

society for example can you imagine that

the decent Civic talented people is

going to run for office if they really

do believe that politics is also about

managing mistrust are you not afraid

that with all these technologies that

are going to track down any statement

the politicians are going to make on

certain issues are not afraid that it’s

very going to be a very strong signal to

politicians to repeat their positions

even the very wrong positions because

consistency is going to be more

important than common sense and the

Americans who I’d the room are you not

afraid that your presidents are going to

govern on the base what they said on the

primary elections I find this extremely

important because democracy is about

people changing their views based on the

rational arguments and discussions and

we can lose this with the very noble

idea to keep people accountable for

showing the people that we are not going

to tolerate politicians they opportunism

in politics so for me this is extremely

important and i do believe that when we

are discussing politics these days

probably it makes sense to work also

about this type of a story and those who

don’t forget any unveiling is also

veiling nevertheless how transparent our

governments want to be there going to be

selectively transparent in a small

country that could be my country but

could be also your country they took a

decision it is a real case story that

all of the governmental decisions

discussions of the council of ministers

are going to be published on the

internet 24 hours after the council

discussions took place and the public

was extremely old for it so he had the

opportunity to talk to the Prime

Minister why he took this decision

listen this is the best way to keep the

mouse of my ministers closed

because it’s going to be very difficult

for them to be sent knowing the 24 hours

after this is going to be on the public

space and this is in a certain way go

interview political crisis so when we

talk about transparency when we talk

about openness I really do believe that

we should keep in mind is that what went

right is what went wrong and this is

yoder who is neither Bulgarian no

political scientists some centuries ago

he said there is a big shadow where

there is much light thank you very much