US President Joe Biden was yesterday ready to urge participants at the first White House Summit for Democracy to reverse an ongoing “recession” of democracy that is playing out at a time of rising authoritarianism around the globe and extraordinary strains on foundational institutions in the US.
The two-day virtual summit that started yesterday has been billed as an opportunity for leaders and civil society experts from about 110 countries to collaborate on fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights.
However, the gathering has already drawn backlash from the China, Russia and other nations that were not invited to participate.
Photo: Reuters
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden, who was scheduled to address the summit at its opening yesterday and again today, would call on participants to dedicate themselves to “reversing the democratic recession and ensuring that democracies deliver for their people.”
Biden also plans to speak about the importance of voting rights at home, much as he did at an anniversary celebration of the capital’s Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, a senior administration official who previewed the event for reporters said on the condition of anonymity.
The summit comes as US democracy faces grave challenges to its institutions and traditions.
Local elected officials are resigning at an alarming rate amid confrontations with angry voices at school board meetings, elections offices and town halls. States are passing laws to limit access to the ballot, making it more difficult for Americans to vote.
Moreover, the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol has left many in one US political party clinging to former US president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, eroding trust in the accuracy of the vote.
Biden has said passage of his ambitious domestic agenda — the US$1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill he signed into law, as well as the roughly US$2 trillion “Build Back Better Act” of social and climate change initiatives moving through the Senate — would demonstrate how democracy can improve people’s lives.
Some advocates also want Biden to focus on other ways to shore up democracy at home.
“The United States has a thriving democracy, but it’s been hurting in recent years,” said Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, whose annual report marked a 15th consecutive year of a global democratic slide.
“Right now, we’re going through a phase in America where it’s very difficult to get things done and to really prove that democracy can deliver,” he added.
Biden has made promoting democratic values a focal point of his foreign policy, and has repeatedly stressed the need for the US and other like-minded allies to demonstrate that democracies are a better vehicle for societies than autocracies.
However, over the first year of his presidency, democratic freedoms have continued to erode.
In its new annual report released on Wednesday, CIVICUS Monitor, a global rights index, said that 13 countries saw their civic freedoms slide this year from the previous year.
Only one, Mongolia, saw civic freedoms improve, it said, adding that of the 197 countries graded by the group, only 39 were rated as open societies.
A Pew Research Center report released this week said that while “people like democracy, their commitment to it is often not very strong.”
Even wealthy countries, including the US, have some people who favor military rule, the report said.
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