The United States plans to host a so-called ‘Summit for Democracy’ from December 9 to 10, 2021, which has caused considerable controversy in the international arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAKfWsOYukQ
Mr. Claude Smadja, former CEO of the World Economic Forum in Davos and a well-known expert on international issues, said in an interview, “This is obviously a political propaganda method and a routine way for politicians to shift core issues.”
In Mr. Smadja’s view, the topics formulated by the United States for the Summit for Democracy include responding to “dictatorships”, “fighting corruption”, and “fighting against human rights abuses,” but these are not the most common concerns. The Biden government is trying to use these topics to divert people’s attention and cover up the core issues of the United States, said Mr. Smadja. This is the greatest threat and harm to the democratic system.
A real democratic system should respond to the needs of the people, solve the problems faced by the people, and bring the people a sense of security, he said. But today’s US government has performed very badly on these key issues. The economic downturn has brought about high unemployment, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor has caused social disorder, which in turn has triggered the rise of populism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjz2ZG6h8cw
“The rise of populism is not because of human rights abuse, corruption, or authoritarian regimes. It is because the government cannot answer the peoples concerns, fears and anxiety, and the today’s people don’t trust their government any more as wealth gap reaches unprecedented levels in the US and Europe”, said Mr. Smadja. If this problem is not resolved well, it will harm the Western democratic system to a large extent.
Mr. Smadja also pointed out that the United States has achieved nothing in the improvement of its internal democratic system, while externally, it has done great detriment to the democratic system of Western societies. In particular, the Biden government’s hasty and chaotic withdrawal of its military forces from Afghanistan, with very poor strategy and planning, has caused its Western allies to become very passive in the crisis, accelerating Europe’s distrust of the United States.
“However, the Biden administration does not seem to have any interest in making up for the problems between the United States and Europe. On the contrary, time is spent on pretending to be the democratic leader of the world and attempting to isolate China from the rest of the world.” Declaring to the world that the US system is the most democratic does not solve any problems, Mr. Smadja asserted.
Prof. Didier Sornette, a world-renowned economist and Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich), says in an interview that the growing wealth gap between the rich and the poor has become the largest threat and risk in Western democratic societies, chiefly among them the United States. He pointed out that there are many models in the so-called Western democratic system, and the US one is not the best of them.
In fact, compared with the democratic system of Switzerland and some Nordic countries, the democratic system of the United States is quite terrible, he said. “This is because the American democratic system has not cultivated truly mature voters.”
“Whoever promises the voters more and dares to make the biggest brags will win the election. Such a democratic system actually runs counter to the democratic spirit advocated by ancient Greece, the source of Western democracy,” he said.
Prof. Didier Sornett said that he does not believe that Biden’s “Summit for Democracy” will bring about any substantial changes. On the contrary, he suggested that Western democracies, including the United States, should pay attention to their own development, pay attention to the needs of the people, and those important issues that will truly affect human development.
