Elections Are Not Enough #163

A crowded week of elections, with midterms in the United States a day away, prompts a question we think gets too little attention: what actually makes a democracy work? Voting is the most visible institution, and so it gets overvalued. Without an underlying culture of decency, respect for the other side, protection of minorities and acceptance of defeat, an election can be held without anything resembling democracy taking place. The German ministers handing their successors a bouquet of flowers, or the American president leaving a note for the person who just beat him, can look like quaint rituals. They are in fact load-bearing.

We work through five countries where those norms are under strain. In Israel, an election fought between a Netanyahu bloc and an anti-Netanyahu bloc, with no vision on either side, leaves the Arab parties as kingmakers, even as Likud prepared fraud allegations before a single vote was counted. In Serbia, a student-led movement against corruption faces the problem of what comes after removing the people in power. In Spain, a tragic train crash was politicised within hours, a symptom of a democracy that never fully processed its civil war. In Brazil, leaked chats show Meta suppressing one candidate’s reach, a reminder that tech companies now shape public discourse as much as voters do. And in the United States, gerrymandering, subpoenaed election workers and a Senate race with two Dan Sullivans show what happens when the letter of the law survives but its spirit does not.

Running through it all is the shrug that says everyone is corrupt anyway, a resignation that lowers the barrier for the next abuse. A healthy system relies on voters prepared to punish their own side when it breaks the rules, putting the health of their country above loyalty to their tribe. Where two large parties both fail that test, as in Spain and parts of the US, citizens are left with no good option at all.

This podcast is an individual project between us, Dario Hasenstab and Balder Hageraats. We are supported by our producer Stefani Obradovic from Western Bubble Insights & Strategy. If you would like to get in touch with us, write us an email at [email protected].