Hope is Everywhere -
If You Know Where to Look
"Rather than strengthening undemocratic movements and leaders, the pandemic has exposed them. Rather than isolating and intimidating citizens, it has more often stirred them to action, argues SLATE’s Joshua Keating, citing recent events in Belarus and Thailand, among other factors".
Today, as we all wait with bated breath for the outcome of the US elections -with all sorts of unpalatable potential scenarios swirling in our heads - this newsletter is taking a step back to focus on where we can find hope for democracy across the world.
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⚡ Article: The Pandemic Threatened Global Democracy. Instead, It’s Strengthened It.
In an article published in Slate on 30 October, Joshua Keating offers: "those who were predicting widespread democratic collapse—and I was definitely one of them—got this one wrong. Rather than strengthening undemocratic movements and leaders, the pandemic has exposed them. Rather than isolating and intimidating citizens, it has more often stirred them to action. This should be cause for some cautious hope as the U.S. faces its own crucial COVID-era test next week."
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⚡ New Interview: Technology, Inequality and Democracy
In Interview 2 of this new Democracy Talk series - part of the forthcoming IACL Virtual Global Roundtable - Shireen Morris and Andrew Ball discuss how technology’s impact on both our working lives and political discourse are raising questions about democratic decline in developed democracies like Australia and the US, and while there’s no silver bullet, there are a range of reforms that might help, including:
- a federal job guarantee
- more direct democracy
- regulating advertising
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⚡ Recording: Democracy and the COVID-19 pandemic: a new role for digital technologies
Digital technologies provide ample opportunities for citizens, government, businesses and society in general. How can we rapidly scale up digital facilitation of citizen participation and inclusiveness, while protecting individual rights, public health and trust in institutions? Choices must be made, which can lead to more authoritarianism or more participatory democracy. It could lead to lasting state surveillance or the emergence of innovative ideas to support public health and strengthen democracy.
This high-level discussion, by taking a clear-eyed look at both the digital threats to democracy and digital opportunities for renewing and deepening democracy, provided a reflective and, in many ways, hopeful map of how technology is being used worldwide to build new channels for deliberation and giving citizens a real voice.
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⚡ IACL Virtual Global Roundtable - Focus on Democratic Renewal
Webinar 9 of the IACL Virtual Global Roundtable on 26 November will focus on how democracy can be rendered more resilient, renewed, and re-imagined:
- Amy RAUB - 'Ensuring Resiliency during Crisis by Protecting Fundamental Equality and ESC Rights'
- Michael Henry YUSINGCO - 'Barangay Assembly: A Citizen-led Reinvigoration of Political Discourse and Civic Engagement in the Philippines'
- Amal SETHI - 'A Toolkit for Preventing Constitutional Decay in India'
- Teodora MILJOJKOVIC - 'Is the Rule of Law Framework an Adequate Response to the Constitutional Decay?'
- Matteo BONELLI - 'Constitutional Decay in Europe: Can the EU Save the Day?'
- Ajla SKRBIC - 'Constitutional Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Can We Expect It in the Near Future?'
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⚡ Human Rights Watch - Real Progress in Protecting Rights during the Pandemic
In a new report, Human Rights Watch provides concrete examples of some of the progress they, together with their partners, have made in protecting human rights during the Covid-19 pandemic, including:
- Constitutional litigation in Bosnia, ending in a Constitutional Court judgment that the ban on outdoor movement for children and older people violated the right to freedom of movement and to liberty, and was disproportionate.
- The release of at least 367 prisoners and 46 juvenile detainees on bail in South Sudan, following a Human Rights Watch report on the country’s overcrowded detention sites and the Covid-19 risks.
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⚡ Key Additional Updates on COVID-DEM
COVID-DEM is updated daily - here are a number of highlights:
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⚡ Podcast
New items in the Podcasts Hub include:
Slate Political Gabfest The “Almost” Edition (29 October 2020)
Voting accessibility, how to digest Election Day updates, and gratitude for life-changing individuals. |
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⚡ Webinars This Week & Beyond
You're spoiled for choice with the range of webinars happening this week and beyond:
This Week
Multi-Date
November
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⚡ New Blog Posts
- Verfassungsblog Johannes GALLON & Anna KATHARINA MANGOLD, ‘Rule of law immune defense: Constitutional considerations on the corona measures on the occasion of the "breakwater lockdown" Verfassungsblog (31 October 2020)
- Verfassungsblog Roman LEHNER, ‘The fairy tale of the "War Cabinet": And why we still have to talk about the parliamentarization of the corona policy’ Verfassungsblog (30 October 2020)
- LSE COVID-19 Blog Joelle GROGAN, ‘Parliament still does not have the power to scrutinise the Coronavirus Act 2020 properly’ LSE COVID-19 Blog (30 October 2020)
- Asian Legal Conversations - COVID-19 Adam FFORDE, ‘Vietnam and COVID-19: More Mark (Zuckerberg) than Marx’ Melbourne Asia Review (29 October 2020)
UKCLA Blog Robert CRAIG, ‘Coronavirus Regulations Case reaches the Court of Appeal – Hearing Dates 29-30 October 2020’ UKCLA Blog (28 October 2020)
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COVID-DEM is You
Every day we work with people worldwide to create this platform for improving our understanding of how the pandemic is challenging democracy, and the many ways we can defend and improve our democracies.
Our most sincere thanks to every one of you who had helped us to build COVID-DEM into what it is today. Don't hesitate to send us your work and suggestions, to democraticdecay@gmail.com or through our online form.
Dr Tom Gerald Daly
Director, DEM-DEC
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Tom is the creator and Director of DEM-DEC and an academic and consultant in the area of public law, human rights, and democracy-building. Find out more here.
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