How bad is the crisis in democracy?

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Transcripts

the 20th century's most successful

political idea is under attack

democracy is facing a crisis of

confidence the quality of democracy is

in decline a gap is growing between

people and the political elites elected

to represent them

[Music]

powerful interests have corrupted the

ways people are governed it was very

frustrating because people were dying

and fledgling democracies are

increasingly succumbing to the lure of

autocracy any time we're done you still

believe their business on our darkest

place but how deep is this crisis and

how worried should the world be

[Applause]

[Music]

[Music]

this Dan has become a young voice of the

Sheila Jean

the nationwide protest movement against

the French government at its height in

2018 the movement made headlines around

the world

[Music]

this turns music videos has had millions

of views online

this is possible demo some chapala to

mom at the heart of his music is a

strong sense of dissatisfaction with

France's governing class

[Music]

Tsukasa Hilda Street typically

manageable and for statistically Friday

night in distance hometown of Toulouse

in southwest France the stands about to

start Agee the crowd are up for it most

of the people here are members of the G

lays on everyone here lives in one of

the world's oldest democracies

but you won't find anyone who thinks

elected politicians represent them

[Applause]

France for a long time had a system in

which a group of very highly qualified

technocrats and politicians were

entrusted to run the country for

everybody's benefit and they did very

well out of it but the whole country did

out of it that system started to break

down as early as of 1990s it came to a

head more recently with the July shown

[Applause]

[Music]

every Saturday dist an and the other G

legend take to the streets to voice

their frustrations

[Music]

[Applause]

Masaki way for another folk arts between

October 2018 and April 2019 the Sheila

Jean protests caused major disruption in

cities and towns across France initially

a rebellion in rural France against a

hike in fuel taxes the movement grew

into a wider protest against the entire

political class

[Music]

Liberty fraternity psychosis enhancement

in appeal actuality or Bakula song

seung-heon system

policing beaucoup

[Applause]

after the government abolished the fuel

tanks the Sheila Jean movement declined

and is now dominated by political

extremists

but Distan insists that here in toulouse

they still reflect the feelings of

ordinary people who feel shut out and

unrepresented by the political system

the popular 50% with our little Maina

see person solicitor and republican said

the Hawaii the desired capital city

discern equally they are about to spoil

our cause

in recent years the strength of anger

towards the governing class in France

has risen admits to climate of growing

resentment and extremism

today in France almost 70 percent

believe their politicians are corrupt

research suggests only 32% of the

population trust the government while

the global average is 47%

[Music]

[Applause]

that's good opposed Shakira me opposes

sonny perdue has somebody that goes

sonny perdue has some real a tour video

has somebody leave fossils it it

phosphate in 2017 Frances president

Emmanuel macron came to power at the

head of a brand new party promising a

new and more representative kind of

politics but two years in an Emmanuel

macron critics say he's just another

fully paid-up member of france's

traditional political class it doesn't

help that he studied here at the college

that most symbolizes the aloofness of

france's political elite we are in the

old enna which is the national school

for administration it's the school

dedicated to the civil servants orally

Philip petty used to be a government

minister and also studied at an elite

college or Conde Col as they are known

Anna is the most elite of the Condor

Coll where France's leading civil

servants come to learn their trade many

later become politicians four of the

last eight presidents of France studied

here

[Music]

anna has become a symbol of inequality

in the ni you have only a few persons of

the students will come from

working-class that's why the people in

France have developed a hate regarding

enough because in fact they feel as if

it was something unaccessible for them

or for their children in April 2009 teen

president macron proposed shutting down

Anna but Miss Philippa T believes this

will only paper over the cracks of a

deeper problem she says there is a

perception that politicians become

sucked into a remote metropolitan elite

that puts the interests of the capital

above the rest of the country the

closing of Anna will not be enough to

solve the problem the way politicians

live when they are in Paris is very

different that the way they live when

they are in their constituency sometimes

it's a kind of schizophrenia and because

our country is very centralized too much

centralization is killing France Mike

home when you write yeah it tried in

fact to say that he wanted to get people

from everywhere and to change that but

the people who choose in fact they all

come from the same social classes

but the disillusionment of French voters

is not about to lead to the death of

French democracy

83% still believe it is the best form of

government in France and in the Western

countries are really attached to

democracy they think it's the best

system we have made some studies about

the trust in democracy and in every

study you find that people think it is

the best system they don't want a

dictator and that's very important

however the growing disconnect between

people and elected politicians in France

is part of a wider trend in the West

since the failed wars in Iraq and

Afghanistan

politicians have increasingly been

viewed as incompetent after the global

financial crisis bankers in the City of

London and Wall Street had to be bailed

out ordinary people on the other hand

were expected to pay for it

by enduring austerity the problem in

countries in the West is that the

quality of democracy is in decline

you see people less satisfied that the

democracies they live in are producing

the goods you see people more cynical

about their politicians less ready to

believe that politicians are working on

their behalf in the world's most

powerful democracy that sense of

cynicism towards elected representatives

is growing today only 17% of Americans

say they can trust the government to do

what is right compared with 40% in 2000

[Music]

in a representative democracy the

electorate mostly only get a say at the

ballot box that means the system relies

on voters interests being effectively

protected by those they elect in

American politics lobbying plays a

central role in helping politicians make

informed choices lobbying in itself you

know it is part of the American Way and

generally speaking it works okay it's

hard to explain that it sounds pretty

seedy and bad but you can't pick and

choose who should lobbying what's good

and what's bad that's up to the

politician to figure out the idea is

that the senator or congressman takes an

enlightened and broad view of his or her

constituents interests it is important

that they hear from business and they

hear from you know nonprofits a lot of

interest groups who have their own

perspective the problem in American

democracy today is that the interests of

business often drown out those of

citizens in 2018 3.5 billion dollars was

spent on lobbying in Washington up from

1.6 billion in 2000 and of the 100

organizations that spent the most on

lobbying 95 represent business that can

have a real impact on ordinary people

the nation is in the midst of an

unprecedented opioid epidemic America's

opioid crisis is rampant with an average

of 115 opioid deaths each day drug

overdoses are now the leading cause of

accidental death in our country and this

is a total epidemic the opioid crisis is

one example of how lobbying by wealthy

companies has clashed with the interests

of the electorate while some

pharmaceutical companies sought to push

opioids as a miracle cure for pain

millions of Americans became addicted

[Music]

my dream was to join an Olympic team

husam gay so I went to gymnastics

practice for four and a half hours every

day of the week and I never thought in a

million years that this is where my life

would be Elena is one of the victims of

the opioid crisis she now does outreach

work helping other drug addicts on the

streets of San Francisco in 2010 age 16

she was injured in a car crash and

prescribed opioids to relieve the pain

I started out instead you know and um I

woke up some days later in the hospital

I was on a trip and I remember singing

to myself you know I really like the way

this feels

[Music]

alena soon became addicted to the pills

she was given and found doctors were

only too happy to keep on prescribing

they were writing scripts for an opioid

painkillers like that can do addiction

it was like being in jail you can't just

like open the door and walk out of it

you can't you're here in DES and it

holds you there at the time this was a

pattern sweeping across America in

Washington most politicians were slow to

tackle this growing opioid crisis when I

was in Congress I became acutely aware

of the opioid epidemic as it hit my

family and my son became addicted to

pills in high school he thought that

they were the safer a drug to party with

and he he became addicted mary bono was

a Republican member of Congress between

1998 and 2013 during the height of the

opioid epidemic she co-founded the

Congressional group on prescription drug

abuse in 2010 and quickly discovered

that pharma companies were keen to play

down the crisis we had some industrial

opposition every step of the way we had

a lot of you know pharmaceutical

manufacturers and distributors and folks

saying that we were wrong and that were

making this up and that we were

overstating the problems miss bono

believes that politicians failed their

constituents by falling prey to the

influence of pharmaceutical companies

she says she experienced the unhealthy

influence of the farmer Lobby firsthand

by the time this hearing is over ten

Americans will have tragically and I

believe needlessly died from

prescription drug overdoses Purdue

Pharma had sent in a lobbyist and a

former member of Congress with the

explicit reason to politically threaten

me that if I continued my work on the

opioid epidemic that they would defund a

prescription drug monitoring database in

the state of Florida it actually sort of

became a little legend on the hill about

being threatened like this by if I'm a

member of Congress now if you go back

and they've been interviewed about this

and they deny it but it happened we have

a solemn obligation to tackle this

growing epidemic head-on and I'm going

to keep beating the drums until Congress

the FDA and the DEA come up with a

comprehensive plan for action

since 2000 pharmaceutical companies have

spent over four billion dollars lobbying

and funding election campaigns in

Washington although not all of this

relates to opioids it compares with just

four million dollars spent by groups

lobbying to limit opioid use this huge

disparity meant the pharmaceutical

companies were able to limit attempts to

change opioid prescribing patterns for

years it was very frustrating all along

because people were dying there's no

question that the lobbying efforts by

pharmaceutical manufacturers and

distributors stalled the response

[Music]

[Applause]

so like this is the part where the

prisons will be like [ __ ] like I for

by

[Music]

when legislation was passed in 2016

hundreds of thousands of addicts like

Helena turned to alternatives on the

black market such as heroin and fentanyl

I've been using heroin for close to

eight years now it's maintenance now I

don't get it I don't get high anymore

drugs now kill about seventy thousand

Americans every year more than car

crashes or guns a complex web of factors

underlies this but the crisis has

highlighted how far the powers of

corporations have risen relative to

elected politicians since the early

2000s the gap has widened between

spending on corporate lobbying and the

overall funding of the United States

Congress the attitude of corporations

towards government has gone from seeing

government as a threat to seeing

government as a potential opportunity

Lee Trotman is a political scientist and

a leading expert on political lobbying

in America what we've done is we've

really hollowed out Congress Congress

has D invested in its own knowledge and

capacity for four decades and it's

Dumber as an institution now and

corporate lobbyists are much more

powerful as a result one of the things

you can ask yourself is why do

businesses spend what they do the

extraordinary large sums that are being

spent is an indication of just what they

expects the political system to give

them in return

if constituents feel that their voice is

completely drowned out and at Washington

is producing bad policies because in

effect it's being bought then that is a

failure of democracy

we are going to Washington DC and we are

going to drain the swamp

spending on lobbying has increased by

nine percent since Donald Trump moved

into the White House despite him running

on the promise of cleaning up Washington

you know that phrase started about a

week ago and I thought it was terrible I

didn't like it at all I said I don't

know I just don't like it the people

like it that's much more important

president Trump won the election by

playing on the sense of dissatisfaction

with the political status quo we must

protect our borders from the ravages of

other countries making our products

stealing our companies and destroying

our jobs playing on grievance is a more

sure way to power and that is otherwise

known as populism president Trump is

part of a wider trend since the 1990s 46

populist leaders or parties have been in

power in 33 democratic countries the

worry about populism is that playing on

people's grievances and exaggerating

their differences tends to make the

political system less healthy and that

of course is bad for democracy

[Music]

democracies are historically thought to

die by the barrel of a gun but today

they are just as at risk of being

strangled slowly by populist leaders

claiming to act in the name of the

people

[Music]

when reach f-type uh dawuan became prime

minister of Turkey in 2003 he was a

force for democracy standing up to the

army which had launched one coup after

another

[Music]

over the years he has consistently been

elected but power has corrupted the

president and the country has slipped

into autocracy

[Applause]

in 2016 a faction of the military

attempted a coup but it failed and

president Erdogan ramped up his

consolidation of power

[Music]

[Applause]

today marks three years since the failed

coup attempt and president erdogan

supporters are celebrating the

anniversary Janet I bailed on you still

believe their business on my guitar are

consummate Turkey is now one of the

least democratic countries in Europe but

the president still retains the support

of around half the population never

mangu should be leader yes sir I'm

impatient then surely it dollar will do

mr. moochick atom boo dictator boo mr.

Wilke tech machine I own it here the

president has claimed to be defending

democracy while actually eroding it

since the coup attempt he has purged the

state bureaucracy and civil society

arresting around 80,000 people and

censoring the media

[Music]

we are in a car repair district of

istanbul and this is what the free media

looks like in turkey Katri girsl is a

Turkish journalist

he's just been released from prison

after criticizing the government

the regime took advantage of the

circumstance to muzzle the press I was

accused for deliberately and

intentionally helping terrorist

organization hundreds of opponents of

the president have been tortured in

prison while mr. girsl escaped this

brutality he spent 11 months behind bars

it was a gross injustice the best way to

keep the integrity in prison is not

thinking about the other words my

formula is simple you don't think about

about things that you love but there is

a glimmer of light for democracy in

Turkey in March Akram

Imam or glue an opposition candidate won

the Istanbul mayoral election by a slim

margin edwin has taken a grip through

the ballot box it means he could still

be challenged in the doubt ballot box

now it's not a fair contest but as long

as there are votes there are always

opportunities to have upsets and this is

just a sign that err doin who had

everything going his way actually was

vulnerable

an angry president herda one insisted

that the election be rerun Istanbul

beauty ability of astronomers sitting

there in their organ is a video source

of their Tom currency the gamble didn't

pay off the rerun was lost by huge

majority

[Music]

this was really embarrassing and it

shows that Turkish people is a strong

dedication to say God the last

democratic resort which is the ballot

box and they like it and they won't let

it be hijacked

[Applause]

[Music]

democracy's across the world are

suffering from a crisis of confidence

but they can renew themselves democracy

is not an all-or-nothing entity people

are feeling their democracies are not as

healthy as they were they're less

satisfied with them does that mean

they're no longer democracies of course

it doesn't that's ridiculous but it does

mean that the quality of their

democracies decreased

today around 10% less of the world's

population live in a full democracy

compared with a decade ago

[Music]

inspiration may come from unlikely

places countries where democracy does

not exist on the streets of Moscow and

Hong Kong young people who never lived

in a democracy realize there's something

dignified about without democracy and

it's something we need to remember as if

we're lucky enough to have been born in

democracy it's worth striving