Ernst Hirsch Ballin, scientist, former Minister of Justice and CDA celebrity, is very concerned about our democratic constitutional state. This is apparent from an interview with him in the Volkskrant .
According to him, society lacks citizenship and The Hague politics lacks leadership. He had been warning about this for about ten or fifteen years to no avail. It just went from bad to worse. Are the cards different now?
Despite his bleak analysis, Hirsch Ballin believes that together we will uphold the rule of law. Whence this optimism? Because, he says in the interview, the vast majority of society had confidence in the government’s testing and vaccination policies during the covid pandemic. Or that says it all?
Pandemic
Self-interest, not love for the rule of law, may have been an important consideration. In addition, the government intends – in line with the neoliberalism challenged by Hirsch Ballin – to place the control not with the government but with society in the event of a next pandemic. About a million vulnerable Dutch people will then have to fend for themselves. How about the rule of law.
Also see how it is globally. Globally, democracy is on the defensive. According to the index of The Economist there are currently only about twenty more or less fully democratic countries. Moreover, there is often talk of erosion of the rule of law.
Trump
Hardly anyone could have predicted that Donald Trump would win the 2016 US presidential election. They had not counted on the value of the scorned by his competitor Hillary Clinton’deplorables† At the beginning of last year it was close to the fact that the then still in office Trump had blocked the correct election of Joe Biden with a coup d’état. It is certainly conceivable that Trump will nevertheless return to the White House in 2024.
It is true that Emmanuel Macron was recently re-elected as president of France, but a tad shabby. He received two million votes less than five years ago and his (ultra) right-wing populist rival Marine Le Pen two and a half million more.
government plush
In addition to Hirsch Ballin’s warnings, a lot has happened recently as far as our country is concerned. Last month, the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) reported that right-wing extremism currently poses the greatest threat to our rule of law. Right-wing extremism, which denies the basic principle of human equality.
A recent study by the Verwey-Jonker Institute shows that for many Dutch people, democratic rights and duties are not a matter of principle.
And then there’s the cause célèbre: the Rutte III cabinet that had to resign because, according to the Van Dam parliamentary inquiry committee, it had wiped its feet on the Constitution in the benefits scandal, the first cabinet in national history.
Subsequently, the same four coalition parties, without wanting to exchange a single word of substance with other groups during the formation, once again took their place in the government plush of the Rutte IV cabinet. In Hirsch Ballin’s terminology: a shocking example of failing (moral) leadership.
way back
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, it rocked the western world. It was believed that the whole world would become democratic by itself (Fukuyama). After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is more sense of reality. But can we be reassured about the sustainability of the democratic constitutional state?
Certainly after the Second World War, increasing prosperity and further democratization were brother and sister. For the first time in seventy years, the shore seems to be turning the ship. Start of the way back?
Tens of billions will have to be made available for climate policy and the elimination of overdue maintenance (defence!). Three to four million Dutch people already have no social prospects and are struggling with payment problems. How will they blow into the ballot box if even the zero line is out of their reach?
Democracy Gen
Westerners are not a special kind of person with a democracy gene in the body. History has shown that they are capable of helping democracy to the barrebies by means of elections. And if the number of votes falls short, then – as in Germany and Italy at the time – alleged center politicians may be willing to lend a helping hand.
With the invasion of Ukraine, wishful thinking was overtaken by (geopolitical) facts. Hopefully it will not be the same with the democratic constitutional state. Then a few million voters who have not made it or cannot make it socially, will quickly notice that politics (also) cares about them.
It is no better than it is: the democratic constitutional state works as long as the good municipality feels the benefits.
Sytze Faber is a political scientist and was a member of parliament for the CDA and editor-in-chief of the Friesch Dagblad, of which he is now a columnist.