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It was supposed to be in person, but the long tail of the COVID-19 pandemic meant Joe Biden’s first gathering of the world’s democracies would have to be held virtually. Opening the first day of meetings with heads of states of more than 100 countries that joined the Summit for Democracy, Biden walked onto a stage set inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington and sat down at a wooden table with his Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Democracy needs champions,” Biden said, adding that the meeting had been on his mind for a long time.
Biden had promised to convene such a summit on the campaign trail while he was running against then President Donald Trump, who pressured federal judges, interfered in the Justice Department, used the tools of his office to campaign, and attempted to overturn legitimate election results. “Here in the United States, we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,” Biden said.
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After the Cold War, the U.S. and world’s democracies were ascendent. The collapse of the Soviet Union was widely pitched as a verdict that authoritarian states not only sapped personal freedom but were proven to be forms of government that will fail. But in the last several years, as Trump acted on his undemocratic impulses and leaders in other democracies like India, the Philippines, Hungary, Poland and Brazil showed their own autocratic tendencies, the world has slowly awoken to the fact that maintaining robust democracies will take work.
“Democracy is in serious trouble. We’ve seen more and more democracies weakening their respect for political rights and civil liberties,” says Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, which has rated countries on political rights and civil liberties since 1973. “It’s gonna take some time for us to dig out of the hole.”
During the two-day summit, which was widely seen as another way to…
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Source : time
