Contributo para o debate ideológico: - Está em declínio a democracia (e os governos social-democratas)?  A modernização e "branqueamento" de autocracias / estados securitários.  Extractos de  The Big Debate    (David Brooks, 2014/5/19) : is democracy in decline? Modernizing autocracies / guardian states*

 «    It’s now clear that the end of the Soviet Union heralded an era of democratic complacency. Without a rival system to test them, democratic* governments have decayed across the globe. In the U.S., Washington is polarized, stagnant and dysfunctional; a pathetic 26 percent of Americans trust their government to do the right thing. In Europe, elected officials have grown remote from voters, responding poorly to the euro crisis and contributing to massive unemployment.

    ... The system of checks and balances can slide into paralysis, as more interest groups acquire veto power over legislation.

    ... A new charismatic rival is gaining strength: the Guardian State.  ... Asia’s modernizing autocracies. In some ways, these governments look more progressive than the Western model; in some ways, more conservative.

    In places like Singapore and China, the best students are ruthlessly culled for government service. The technocratic elites play a bigger role in designing economic life. The safety net is smaller and less forgiving. In Singapore, 90 percent of what you get out of the key pension is what you put in. Work is rewarded. People are expected to look after their own.

These Guardian States have some disadvantages compared with Western democracies. They are more corrupt.  ...  They can move fast because they limit democratic feedback ...

    ... So how should Western democracies respond to this competition? What’s needed is ... a strategy to make democracy dynamic again.

    The answer is ... to become less (?!) democratic at the national level in order to become more democratic at the local level.  At the national level, American politics has become neurotically democratic. Politicians are campaigning all the time and can scarcely think beyond the news cycle. Legislators are terrified of offending this or that industry lobby, activist group or donor faction*. Unrepresentative groups have disproportionate power in primary* elections.

    The quickest way around all this is to use elite ...commissions to push populist reforms.  ... Gather small groups of the great and the good together to hammer out bipartisan* reforms ...  Democracy’s great advantage over autocratic states is that information and change flow more freely from the bottom up. Those with local knowledge have more responsibility.

    If the Guardian State’s big advantage is speed at the top, democracy’s is speed at the bottom. So, obviously, the elite commissions should push proposals that magnify that advantage: which push control over...programs to local  organizations ... and to spread power to consumers.

Democracy is always messy, but, historically, it’s thrived because it has been more flexible than its rivals. ...

--Are people dissatisfied with government or (and) governments increasing favoritism towards the rich at the expense of the rest of us?  »

-------------- notas:

* - Análise sob perspectiva americana/USA e seu sistema bipartidário: "republicanos" (conservadores/liberais) e "democratas" (social-democratas).

*- "guardian states" traduzida por "estados securitários", com "democracia de fachada/ musculada", mais vigilância e controlo dos cidadãos e menos liberdade política e cívica; "autocracia" aqui equivalente a "quase-ditadura" ('moderna-esclarecida' ou 'bruta', de uma pessoa/família, oligarquia ou partido "quase único").

*- Não é aqui abordado ... mas muito mais há a dizer sobre "pseudo-democracias"  (governos eleitos por minorias -entre 10% e 40% dos eleitores, com mais de 50% de não votantes -, que governam a favor de elites e sob batuta estrangeira ou dos "mercados"/ alta finança e multinacionais, ...),  ocidentais e outras...