Ryan Bridge: Is democracy under threat?

Is it just me or does it feel like democracy is somewhat under threat or at risk? 

Just reading the international news headlines day in day out, it feels precarious. 

Trump, over the weekend if you missed it, is suggesting that he will fix the next election. And I know he's probably joking, but you never really tell with Donald Trump. 

"You won't have to do it anymore, four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore. 

My beautiful Christians, I love you Christians." 

So there's Trump and then you've got a barely functioning Joe Biden in the White House. Are these the shining beacons of democracy we can hold up as our poster kids. 

I don't think so. 

And then there's, if you look apart from the Olympics in France, the election result there has left them basically in limbo. 

I mean, who is actually running the government you know, the Olympics is kind of the spectacle. 

That's a sideshow, but really who's running the place and there's such an extreme spectrum from that vote that they had. 

You've had Hungary's Viktor Orban at the weekend talking about nationalism. You know, he's Putin's mate. 

He says there's a shift in global power underway, in a few decades or centuries he reckons Asia will be the centre of the world, the future big powers, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, the West has pushed Russia towards this block of countries. 

The International Institute for Democracy and electoral assistance says half of the world's countries are suffering democratic decline. 

They say things like flawed elections and curtailed rights of freedom and assembly and speech are reducing the power of democracy across the world and this is six consecutive years of declines, they say so I don't really know what the conclusion of all that is other than I suppose, just keep watching the Olympics and forget about it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is it just me or does it feel like democracy
is somewhat under threat or at risk? Just reading the
international news headlines day in, day out, it feels precarious.
Trump over the weekend, if you missed it, is saying that,
and he's probably joking. You know, you didn't never really

(00:20):
tell with Donald Trump, but suggesting that he might fix
the next election.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Listen, you won't have to do it anymore four more years,
you know what, It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You
won't have to vote anymore. Of my beautiful Christians. I
love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you. Get out.
You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you
don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good,
you're not gonna have to vote.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
So there's Trump, and then you've got a barely functioning
Joe Biden and the White House. Are these the shining
beacons of democracy we can hold up as our post
to kids? I don't think so. And then there's if
you look apart from the Olympics in France, once the
election result there has left them basically in limbo. I mean,
who is actually running the government?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:05):
The Olympics is kind of the spectacle. That's a side show,
but really who's running the place? And there's such an
extreme spectrum from that vote that they had. You've had
Hungary's Victor Aorbarne at the weekend talking about nationalism. You
know his pertians mate. He says, there's a shift in
global power underway. In a few decades or centuries. He

(01:26):
reckons Asia will be the center of the world. The
future big powers China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia. The West has
pushed Russia towards this block of countries, he reckons. The
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistants says half of
the world's countries are suffering democratic decline. They say things

(01:47):
like flawed elections and curtailed rights of freedom and assembly
and speech are reducing the power of democracy across the world.
And this is six concepts hit of years off the clients.
They say, So, I don't really know what the conclusion
of all that is, other than I suppose just keep

(02:07):
watching the Olympics and forget about it.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
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