Disintegrating order in a drifting world Global developments do not auger well for democracies

What we are witnessing today across the world is unprecedented, be it the triumph of Donald Trump in the United States, the fast changing political landscape in Europe, almost total failure of the United Nations to prevent the massive displacement and miserable state of civilians caught in the Syrian conflict or the worsening environmental situation in many parts of the world including global cities like Paris to Beijing.

Global institutions and existing international agreements appear to be ineffective in reining in the forces that have been unleashed by neoliberalism and technological advances over the last several decades. While economic globalization and the ICT revolution have integrated the world as never before, governments and global institutions have failed to reduce economic inequality both within and across countries.

Increasing international competition for resources and markets has forced governments to reduce taxes and relax environmental controls, and these in turn have aggravated the problems of inequality and environmental degradation. In spite of the growing criticism of the emergent global economic order by the leftist intellectuals both within and outside many global institutions, particularly in Europe, governments have failed to curb the influence of vested interests on public policies.

It is the above policy paralysis that has often pushed the masses into the fold of demagogues and populist politicians in many countries across the world. In spite of frequent change of governments in the United States bringing into power liberally minded leaders from time to time, their ability to bring about drastic policy changes has been curbed by powerful vested interests. This has been particularly so over the last few decades, frustrating and marginalising large segments of the underprivileged strata of society. 

Most recent popular agitations about the plight of the 99 percent against the super rich 1 percent of the population exemplified by Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States were a clear warning to the comfortable middle and upper middle class leadership of centre left parties in the western world. Yet, what these parties could accomplish in the face of resistance from the corporate leaders driven by the profit motive has not been very significant. 

As is well documented today, income inequality and working conditions have continually deteriorated in many countries across the world. Often economic growth has not been accompanied by secure employment even in fast growing economies like South Korea. Growing economic and social pressure coupled with a sense of uncertainty in less developed countries have encouraged many people to become inward looking, support popular nationalist parties and find scape goats to compensate for their own inadequacies. Widespread ethnic and religious tensions in many parts of the world have been the result. 

The developments outlined above do not auger well for democracy. If the liberal and social democratic leaders are defeated by populist politicians in leading democracies in the world, the democratic process, good governance and socially just and environmentally concerned and responsible policy making are more than likely to be subverted under the influence of sectarian and vested interests. There are already signs of this happening. When the global institutions like the United Nations and long standing international conventions become ineffective in upholding the long established normative order in the world, we are likely to enter an era of great uncertainty and instability. 

Most recent popular agitations about the plight of the 99 percent against the super rich 1 percent of the population exemplified by Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States were a clear warning to the comfortable middle and upper middle class leadership of centre left parties in the western world. 

But the irony is that we are facing this prospect at a time when the need of the hour is the exact opposite. This becomes quite obvious when we look at the range of deep seated economic, social, political and environmental problems that we witness in the world today. The cases in point are massive international migration of refugees and workers, persisting mass poverty, violent ethnic 
and religious conflicts and global warming. 

The above issues are certainly not going to get resolved on their own. They demand concerted global and national interventions fortified by scientific evidence. 

The Sustainable Development Goals unveiled by the UN in 2015 and the Paris Agreement on climate change ratified in 2016 are two initiatives that the world leaders and global and national institutions need to make all efforts to implement in the next several decades in order to save the planet and create social and economic conditions that ensure oppressed and struggling masses in different parts of the world live decent lives with human dignity. Such collective efforts are indispensable to bring about the global societal and political transformation required to make SDGs a reality. 

Yet, the persisting global economic policy environment and the current political trends in almost all parts of the world are not helpful to bring about such a transformation. So, all democratically minded people with a sense of social justice and environmentally conscious responsibility, irrespective of their station in life need to work hard to mobilise public opinion and social and political pressure to bring about the social transformation required to human induced disasters, both social and environmental. 

In Sri Lanka, we need to overcome divisions created by sectarian forces and vested interest to mobilise people and public opinion around collective goals of social justice, eradication of poverty, national reconciliation and environmental security.