Irish Examiner View: Democracy is still our best chance

The year ahead offers plenty of uncertainty but our political system is the best way to tackle any dangers ahead

People chant slogans during a protest in Khartoum, Sudan, in October, after a coup in the country.

Crystal-ball gazing is a risky business, though less so in an era of big tech which gives us the data to make pretty accurate, if inane, predictions about the shape of things to come. The trend-watchers, forecasters, and speculators are working overtime to cast a revelatory light on the year ahead.

For the most part, they offer a safe and rather hopeful vision of the future. The circular economy will be big. Natural materials will take off for home interiors – for those who have a home. Vegan vacations, colour, sequins, and the return of the mini-skirt also make it into the 2022 mix.

When it comes to the twists and turns in the political and economic world, however, playing Nostradamus is something of a mug’s game. We have seen that over the last exceptional 20 months, when a global pandemic upended the world in the most unexpected of ways.

Having said that, we can say with a degree of certainty that Covid-19 will continue to loom large in the new year. Climate change will too and, based on the evidence of the year just coming to an end, the unsettling dismantling of democracy will continue around the globe.

The year began with an attack on the United States Capitol when it was breached on January 6 by thousands of armed rioters intent on overturning Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Five people died and over 100 were injured in one of the most shameful episodes in recent American history.

The year comes to an end with a police crackdown on the last pro-democracy media outlet in Hong Kong while, in Russia, the Supreme Court has ordered the closure of Memorial International, the country’s oldest human rights group.

Elsewhere, countries in eastern Europe have used the cover of Covid-19 to take liberties with human rights or to move increasingly towards authoritarianism.

Across the West, there has been increasing unease about ever-tighter restrictions and the ongoing encroachment on personal freedoms. Protests against those restrictions have taken place all around the world and they are likely to continue at least into the early months of 2022 as countries struggle to contain the Omicron variant.

Here, there has been much discussion about the relationship between our elected Government and the unelected members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), which has been accused of overstepping the mark by attempting to influence government rather than just advise it.

Those tensions are likely to continue if Covid-19 continues to put limitations on our personal movements.

On the other hand, we must remember that we are still free to question and demand transparency, even if it is not always forthcoming.

Churchill was right when he said: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Yet, democracy, even with its flaws, still offers us the best chance of negotiating the considerable challenges that lie ahead.

We should do all we can to protect it in 2022.