The Times - UK (2022-02-23)

The joy of childbirth is

being ousted by fear

Alice Thomson

Page 27

the direction we want the world to

go. We are attempting to show every

country with a similar potential that

the energy, resolve and leadership

are with democrats and not dictators.

There may be those, reviewing our

own troubles, who wonder if it isn’t a

little arrogant of us to start lecturing

others about democracy. It is true

that the most important thing we

can do to promote democracy in the

world is ensure that at home we are

governed with integrity and respect

for liberty and the law and that we

do not allow standards to fall.

Yet the democracy index, which

classifies even the United States as a

flawed democracy, still sees us as a

full one. It is not arrogance but

appropriate self-confidence that

leads us to feel we can offer

leadership. And those who feel that,

when we challenge Putin, our own

imperfections make us hypocrites

have lost their sense of proportion.

My father was born in one of the

world’s great cities. A place of culture

and enterprise, the link between East

and West. In the past 30 years it was

slowly becoming that again. It is

profoundly in our national interest

that Vladimir Putin not be allowed to

halt that progress.

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Ukraine is closer to home than you think

Russia’s assault has echoes of 1939 and underlines the importance of ensuring that democracy wins over dictatorship
ALAMY

The third point is the rise in self-

confident, anti-democratic leadership

in some of the most authoritarian

states, attracting admiration, or at

least tolerance, from people who

otherwise diverge politically. It is

interesting to discover Jeremy

Corbyn and Nigel Farage pulling in a

similar direction over Ukraine.

Ukraine is far from a perfect and

uncomplicated country. The index

classifies it as having a hybrid

regime, somewhere between a flawed

democracy and an authoritarian

state. In supporting its independence

and integrity we cannot be said to be

backing something that, were it not

for Vladimir Putin, would be the

subject of our devoted admiration.

What we are supporting instead is

the promise of Ukraine. The

direction we want it to go, the

direction we believe it can go. And

After its capture in September 1939

Lviv became part of the Soviet Union

countries covering almost the entire

world. And this year’s report makes

sobering reading.

Of 167 countries and territories,

only 21 can be considered full

democracies, two fewer than last

year. There are 59 authoritarian

regimes, up two. The index involves

a detailed scoring system that

attempts to measure democratic

health. The world average for 2021 is

lower than at any time since 2006.

This is also true for every region.

Even in western Europe there has

been a noticeable decline. Spain, for

instance, fell this year from being

classified as a full democracy to

being marked as a flawed democracy.

This was due mainly to a downgrade

in its score for judicial independence

after a row over the appointment of

magistrates. France (with a spotty

record on civil liberties) and Italy

(with its somewhat erratic system of

government) were both already

classified as flawed.

The causes of this overall decline

are manifold. Restrictions on civil

liberties imposed during the Covid

pandemic have played a role. But

three points seem to stand out.

First, there is a relationship

between lower economic growth and

declining faith in democracy. This

effect isn’t uniform but it is obvious.

And the reasons are obvious too. It is

easier to settle claims for resources

peacefully and democratically when

there are more resources to share.

Second, what amounts to a crisis

of confidence in democracy is

depressing scores everywhere. The

report describes the right as

becoming attracted to populism

rather than pluralism, while liberals

become attracted to technocracy.

Some voters yearn for leadership by

a “strongman” while others support

devolving decisions to “experts” and

international bodies.

I

n October I made a trip I had
been planning to make for the
whole of my adult life. I went to
see the house where my father
was brought up, the factory my
grandfather owned, the apartment
block where my dad was arrested. It
turns out my visit was just in time.
For my father was born in the city
now known as Lviv, in the far west of
Ukraine. British citizens have been
told to avoid it, and US diplomats
announced yesterday they would be
moving from Lviv to Poland, whose
border lies 40 miles away. The
shadow of war has once again fallen
over the city where my family lived
for hundreds of years.
While others employ metaphors
involving Chamberlain and the
Munich agreement and 1938 and
whether Ukraine is the new
Czechoslovakia, I haven’t a need for
such comparisons. Because for me
Lviv is the new Lviv.
In September 1939 Moscow
ordered the invasion of the city and,
after a rigged vote, pronounced it
part of the Soviet Union. A few
months later the Russians arrested
my grandfather and sent him to the
gulag, while transporting my
grandmother and father to Siberia.
Dad never went home again. After
the war, his city remained Soviet and
after the Yalta conference my
grandparents realised they would
always be exiles.
When I visited, it was to a city
recovering its prosperity and
confidence, coming to terms with its

past and planning its future. What is

going on now is heartbreaking. And I

worry, too, about the safety of the

friends I have there. For me, at least,

this is not all happening in a faraway

place of which I know nothing. It is

uncomfortably close to home.

It is not necessary to have my

family history to appreciate the

importance of what is unfolding.

What is now Ukraine has a

complicated ethnic and political past,

one that Vladimir Putin is trying to

exploit. My father called the city

Lwow as it was Polish. His grandfather

knew it as Lemberg, since it was part

of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Putin says Ukraine is Russian, and

my father did indeed speak Russian,

only because he learnt it in Siberia

from the Russians who transported

him. It is easy to get tangled in the

thickets of this history, which is why

Putin speaks about it at such length.

It is important to break free of this

and to assert that whatever its past, a

free, independent and democratic

Ukraine is part of Europe’s future. It

is a symbol of the progress since the

end of the Cold War and we intend

to keep it that way.

What is at stake is something

much bigger than settling ethnic and

nationalist claims. It is whether we

are committed to the advance of

democracy or resigned to what the

American sociologist Larry Diamond

has identified as a “democratic

recession”. This term is employed in

a report from the Economist

Intelligence Unit, which has been

producing a democracy index since

2006. The unit makes assessments of

What is at stake is

much more than

settling ethnic claims

Some will wonder if it

isn’t a little arrogant to

start lecturing others

Comment

Daniel

Finkelstein

red box

For the best analysis

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the political landscape

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@dannythefink

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