Riprendiamo la riflessione di Jamelle Bouie pubblicata su The New York Times del 18 ottobre 2022 (The U.S. Thinks ‘It Can’t Happen Here.’ It Already Has). In sintesi, come fatto storicamente verificabile, la democrazia americana porta dentro l’autocrazia. Scrive Bouie: Which is to say that for most of this country’s history, America’s democratic institutions and procedures and ideals existed alongside forms of exclusion, domination and authoritarianism. Although we’ve taken real strides toward making this a less hierarchical country, with a more representative government, there is no iron law of history that says that progress will continue unabated or that the authoritarian tradition in American politics won’t reassert itself.
La prospettiva evocata dall’Autore riguarda il senso stesso della democrazia, non solo americana. Si tratta di un tema che occorre affrontare con realismo, mente aperta e capacità di dialogo.
Dire che le tentazioni autoritarie o totalitarie vivono dentro la democrazia significa avere una concezione critica della democrazia stessa. Si tratta di un approccio necessario, soprattutto oggi.
Se esiste un dibattito interno alle democrazie sulla possibilità della loro de-generazione, altrettanto non si può dire per la scelta politica di un’autocritica democratica. Credere nella democrazia, soprattutto in un tempo come l’attuale, significa anzitutto de-dogmatizzarla e riportarla al suo essere imperfetta e incerta, complessa.
La certezza democratica, infatti, non ci permette di vedere i limiti che la democrazia porta con sé. De-dogmatizzare ci porta a non separare il mondo tra asse del bene e asse del male e, altresì, a vincere la tentazione di esportare (sotto diverse forme) un modello democratico in giro per il mondo.
Ciò che non vediamo, a livello di classi dirigenti, è la consapevolezza che la democrazia si salva solo se si problematizza. La crisi de-generativa nel rapporto tra cittadini e istituzioni è ormai evidente: dobbiamo lavorare nel profondo della democrazia (nelle sue potenzialità e nelle sue contraddizioni), se ci crediamo.
English version
We take up Jamelle Bouie’s reflection published in The New York Times of 18 October 2022 (The U.S. Thinks ‘It Can’t Happen Here.’ It Already Has). In summary, as a historically verifiable fact, American democracy brings in autocracy. Bouie writes: Which is to say that for most of this country’s history, America’s democratic institutions and procedures and ideals existed alongside forms of exclusion, domination and authoritarianism. Although we’ve taken real strides towards making this a less hierarchical country, with a more representative government, there is no iron law of history that says that progress will continue unabated or that the authoritarian tradition in American politics won’t reassert itself.
The perspective evoked by the author concerns the very meaning of democracy, not just American one. It is an issue that needs to be approached with realism, open mind and capacity for dialogue.
To say that authoritarian or totalitarian temptations live within democracy is to have a critical conception of democracy itself. This is a necessary approach, especially today.
If there is an internal debate within democracies about the possibility of their de-generation, the same cannot be said for the political choice of democratic self-criticism. Believing in democracy, especially at a time like the present, means first of all de-dogmatising it and bringing it back to its imperfect and uncertain, complex being.
In fact, democratic certainty does not allow us to see the limits that democracy brings with it. De-dogmatising leads us not to separate the world between the axis of good and the axis of evil and, likewise, to overcome the temptation to export (in various forms) a democratic model around the world.
What we do not see, at the level of the ruling classes, is the realisation that democracy is only saved if it is problematised. The de-generative crisis in the relationship between citizens and institutions is now evident: we must work deep within democracy (in its potential and contradictions) if we believe in it.
