HOW TO CONSTRUCT THE UTOPIA OF FULL DEMOCRACY IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

Fernando Alcoforado*

This article represents the continuation of the article whose title is How to make planetary utopias come true, aiming at the construction of a better world [1]. This article is the second of 12 articles that will address the 12 planetary utopias that need to be realized in order to build a better world and contribute to the achievement of happiness for human beings, individually and collectively. This article aims to present the second of the 12 utopias considered related to the construction of the utopia of full democracy in all countries to eliminate the dystopia represented by dictatorships and false democracies that proliferate in the world.

Democracy is a political regime in which sovereignty is exercised by the people. Citizens are the holders of power and entrust part of that power to their representatives so that they can organize society for their benefit. Democracy is a political regime in which all citizens participate directly or through elected representatives in the proposal, development and creation of laws, exercising the power of governance through universal suffrage. The opposite of Democracy is Dictatorship which is a governmental regime in which all the powers of the State are concentrated in an individual, a group or a party. The dictator admits no opposition to his actions and ideas, and has a large part of the decision-making power. It is an anti-democratic regime in which there is no participation of the population.

There are some generally accepted elements of what would make a truly democratic society: 1) provide guaranteed security for all citizens who must not fear loss of their lives or have physical harm; 2) provide the highest possible quality of medical care for all members of society; 3) grant access to food and water to all citizens so that no one goes hungry or thirsty; 4) provide basic housing conditions for all citizens; 5) have a democratic legislative system whose laws are established to preserve the welfare of the population; 6) provide an educational system that guarantees equal access to high-level education for all people in order to make its population highly educated; 7) promote economic and social development whose fruits are shared by the entire population; 8) defend the environment; 9) ensure for the population freedom of thought, belief, religion, affiliation and expression; and, 10) ensure for the population the right to participate in government decisions through plebiscite or referendum.

The article Quais s?o os países mais democráticos do mundo? (What are the most democratic countries in the world?) [2] reports that the Democracy Index is an indicator that measures democratic countries today, considering its degree in 167 countries. The Democracy Index in 2022 is a material published every year by The Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and analysis company of the Economist Group, also responsible for publishing the magazine with the same name. In the most recent result of the Democracy Index, the largest democracies in the world are, in order, the following: 1) Norway; 2) New Zealand; 3) Iceland; 4) Sweden; 5) Finland; 6) Denmark; 7) Switzerland; 8) Ireland; 9) Netherlands (Netherlands); and, 10) Taiwan.

The criteria used in this evaluation involve the quality of the electoral process, the degree of pluralism, the government's efficiency, the level of political participation of the population, the political culture and the guarantee of civil liberties. The concept of full democracy is used by the Democracy Index of The Economist magazine to classify the democratic countries that have the best conditions of this system. Countries that are considered full democracies by the index must meet five criteria:

? have a free and fair electoral process and pluralism;

? have an effective functioning of government;

? have a high political participation of citizens;

? have a democratic political culture;

? have civil liberties guaranteed.

The Democracy Index assigns a score from 0 to 10 for each criterion, and the average of the five scores results in the country's final score. Countries that score 8 or more are classified as full democracies.

Norway is the most democratic country in the world according to the index with a score of 9.81 out of 10 leading the ranking for the tenth consecutive year. Norway stands out for its high political participation, freedom of expression and press, respect for human rights and government transparency. New Zealand is in second place with a score of 9.26. New Zealand is praised for its effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has strengthened public confidence in institutions and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's leadership. Iceland is in third place in the ranking because it obtained a score of 9.25. Iceland is renowned for its gender equality, political diversity and civic culture. Sweden is fourth among the top democratic countries with a score of 9.24. Its focus is on democratic stability, a fair and pluralist electoral system, freedom of the press and active civil society. Finland has a score of 9.20, ranking fifth. Finland is admired for its quality education, welfare state, low corruption and high level of trust in institutions.

Denmark scores 9.11, making it sixth on the index. Its participatory democracy, freedom of expression and association, protection of minority rights and government efficiency are key highlights. Switzerland is ranked seventh with a score of 9.03. Switzerland is known for its decentralized political system, which allows for broad popular participation through referendums and popular initiatives. Ireland has a score of 8.96 ranking eighth on the index. Ireland stands out for its inclusive political culture, which has allowed advances in issues such as same-sex marriage and also legalized abortion. The Netherlands, or Holland, is the country that occupies the ninth place in the ranking with a score of 8.92 that stands out for its political and cultural diversity, freedom of the press and religion, respect for the rule of law and the environment. Taiwan ranks tenth among the top democratic countries, with a score of 8.82 out of 10. Taiwan is recognized for its upholding of democracy and human rights. Brazil occupies the 51st position in the ranking of the most democratic countries.

According to the 2022 index, almost half of the world's population lives in some form of democracy (45.3%). Only 8% reside in a “full democracy”. It appears, therefore, that 92% of the countries in the world do not exercise full democracy.

Representative democracy shows clear signs of exhaustion in several countries around the world, not only due to corruption scandals in the powers of the Republic but, above all, by discouraging popular participation, reducing political activity to electoral processes that are periodically repeated in which the people elect their representatives who, with few exceptions, after elections start to defend the interests of economic groups in opposition to the interests of those who elected them. What is promised in an electoral campaign is, with rare exceptions, abandoned by the leaders of the executive branch and by parliamentarians after occupying their elected positions. From this moment on, other interests that do not correspond to those of the voters will prevail.

In practice, everything works as if the people offered each executive branch leader and each parliamentarian a blank check to do whatever they wanted after occupying their elected positions. What can be seen, in fact, is the existence in the Executive Branch and in Parliament in the vast majority of countries in the world of a group of elected representatives without social control and increasingly distant from the demands of citizens. The absence of social control by those elected and the disengagement of those elected with campaign promises only tend to reinforce the idea of the inexistence of substantial differences between political parties that have become mere electoral registries and to increase frustration with representative democracy and the political institutions.

Democracy is not one-man government. Democracy is also not government by a group, be it a social class or a caste. Democracy can only be government by the people, as the people are really the ones who should govern the government, although they do so indirectly through representatives chosen through voting. This is the essence of representative democracy. The first condition for democracy to exist is popular election, the choice of rulers and their representatives by the people. Elections, however, are not enough to characterize democracy. Democracy does not end with elections. There is no democracy without elections, but there is elections without democracy.

In order to avoid elections without democracy, it is necessary that the rulers, after being elected, always act according to the wishes, aspirations and interests of the people who elected them and not the financers of their campaigns, as currently occurs in several countries around the world. During their mandates, those elected should always act in consonance with public opinion. There can be no democracy in opposition to public opinion. When there is no such consonance, the people do not govern, although they elect their rulers. This is the situation experienced by many societies around the world. In the vast majority of so-called democratic countries, there is no democracy. There is an elective dictatorship. There is no government of the people, there is constitutional autocracy led by the President of the Republic, by State Governors and Municipal Mayors who do what they want in the exercise of power without taking into account the wishes of the population.

The word democracy, of Greek origin, means, by etymology, demos - people and kratein - to govern, that is, government of the people. It was the historian Herodotus who used the term democracy for the first time in the fifth century before Christ. In ancient Greece there was direct democracy in which the citizens themselves made political decisions in the Greek city-states. The Greek model of democracy was called pure democracy, as it consisted of a society, with a small number of citizens, who met and administered the government directly. Due to the complexity of modern society, another form of political organization has become a requirement, that of indirect democracy, also called representative democracy, which means that people are elected, by vote, to "represent" a people, a population, a certain group , community etc.

A true representative democracy is one in which the elected official defends the interests of the population that elected him and systematically reports his mandate to his party and the electorate. The parties and the electorate should have powers to revoke the mandate of the elected in case of non-compliance with the party program and its electoral promises and for bad behavior. Furthermore, crucial and fundamental decisions in the interests of the population should be taken directly by the people through a plebiscite and/or referendum and not exclusively by the executive branch or by parliament.

In order to eliminate the distortions of representative democracy in the world, it is essential to institutionalize participatory democracy with the use of plebiscites or referendums, as already happens in several European countries, particularly in Switzerland and in several countries in Scandinavia, considered the ideal model of the exercise of political power based on public debate between rulers and free citizens in equal conditions of participation. Plebiscite and referendum are consultations with the people to decide on matters of relevance to the nation in questions of a constitutional, legislative or administrative nature. The main distinction between them is that the plebiscite is called prior to the creation of the legislative or administrative act that deals with the subject in question, and the referendum is called later, leaving the people to ratify or reject the proposal. In Brazil, both are provided for in art. 14 of the Federal Constitution and regulated by Law No. 9,709, of November 18, 1998. Participation must be understood, therefore, as a necessity due to man living and living together with others, in an attempt to overcome the difficulties that may arise everyday. To participate means to become a part, to feel included, it is to exercise the right to citizenship (to have time and voice).

The failure of representative democracy as it is practiced in several countries around the world is paving the way for its own end, constituting fertile ground for the advent of exceptional regimes or dictatorships in the face of the frustration of the majority of the population that realizes every day that it participates in a decoy by electing false representatives. This dissatisfaction with representative democracy is already manifested in each election in the growth of null and blank votes, as well as in protests on social networks. In order to build full democracy in the vast majority of countries in the world, it is necessary to convene a National Constituent Assembly in each country with the purpose of institutionalizing full participatory democracy so that the people approve or reject the decisions that are taken by the powers of the Republic through plebiscite or referendum, among other measures.

The construction of the utopia of full democracy in the vast majority of countries in the world is also imposed in the face of the advance of neo-fascism in the world. In the same way that fascism and Nazism were implanted, respectively, in Italy and Germany, during the 1920s and 1930s of the 20th century, neo-fascism seeks to destroy democracy in order to implant a strong, dictatorial State, whose authority would be imposed through the violence, repression and political propaganda. Fascists and Nazis came to power, respectively, in Italy and Germany through legal means, democratically, to later destroy democracy. Like fascism and Nazism, neo-fascism emerged, in the contemporary era, with emotional, irrational claims based on manly promises of renewal of national vigor. The Armed Forces and the police did not oppose fascist violence in Mussolini's Italy or Nazi violence in Hitler's Germany. The Armed Forces and the police also placed themselves at the service of fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany. History shows that republican institutions were not always a barrier to fascism. This almost happened in Brazil with the Bolsonaro government.

Democracy needs to be strengthened in the vast majority of countries in the world in the face of concrete threats to its existence from extreme right-wing political forces. The failure of representative democracy in the vast majority of countries in the world is contributing to the worsening of political problems by paving the way for its own end, constituting fertile ground for the advent of regimes of exception in the face of the frustration of the majority of the population that perceives the every day it participates in a decoy by electing false representatives. All this explains the fact that since 2013 there has been a great social mobilization in Brazil, which began with a wave of protests in S?o Paulo and spread to several Brazilian cities, mobilizing thousands of people to fight for the construction of a new political, economic and social order in place of the prevailing political, economic and social order based on the 1988 Constitution. This is how neo-fascist far-right political groups emerged that seek to purify Brazilian society with the implementation of a dictatorship to rid Brazil of the toxic influences of political parties and left-wing political leaders and their allies, whom they consider to be responsible for the ills in which the Brazilian nation lives.

The implantation of a full democracy depends on the mobilization of civil society, because only with a change in the balance of forces in society it is possible to oppose the interests of the majority of the population to the repressive and corporative logic of the state apparatus currently dominated by a minority. The space for elections, the only achievement that seems to have been left over from the intense mobilizations for the democratization of the State in several countries around the world, shows its limits when it becomes dissociated from social mobilization and the possibility of controlling the elected representatives.

To avoid the end of the current democratic system in Brazil and in other countries of the world, it is not enough to trust in republican institutions that can suffer changes contrary to the interests of the great majority of the population through bills and amendments to the Constitution by opposing political forces. of the democratic system. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary that a broad democratic and anti-fascist front be constituted in Parliament and in Civil Society to defend full democracy and fight against the acts of the political forces of opposition to the democratic system that are contrary to the interests of the great majority of the population and democracy in each country. In countries where dictatorships exist, a broad front must be formed to fight for their overthrow and for the implementation of full representative democracy.

REFERENCES

1.????ALCOFORADO. Fernando. How to make planetary utopias come true, aiming at the construction of a better world. Available on the website https://www.academia.edu/104881954/HOW_TO_MAKE_PLANETARY_UTOPIAS_COME_TRUE_AIMING_AT_THE_CONSTRUCTION_OF_A_BETTER_WORLD .

2.?????CNN BRASIL. Quais s?o os países mais democráticos do mundo? Available on the website <https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/politica/paises-mais-democraticos/ >.

* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globaliza??o (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,https://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944 , 2003), Globaliza??o e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, S?o Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporanea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, S?o Paulo, 2010), Amaz?nia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, S?o Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econ?mico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudan?a Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revolu??es Científicas, Econ?micas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Inven??o de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017),?Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associa??o Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade amea?ada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, S?o Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribui??o ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press,?Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022) and How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chi?in?u, 2023).??