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