💬🌐 Joe Biden's widely announced Summit for Democracy is scheduled for the end of the year. It is not difficult to assume that China and Russia will become the main targets for criticism there.
Therefore, an attempt to carry out counterplay in this field looks quite natural. It also reveals the broader context of the creation and consolidation of a kind of united front of China and Russia in the face of growing pressure from the United States. This united front can be called anti-Western or, if you will, anti-imperialist, although the terms are debatable.
If such a united front is taken as a given of modern world politics, then it is logical that China and Russia should form their own coordinated value and ideological narrative, including the issues of democracy (why not), in spite of the implicit paradox of this approach. In addition, the recent failure of the United States to promote democracy in Afghanistan provides additional evidence for this.
The plus for Russia and China is that they do not ask the presidents of other countries questions about how their elections were held, how they observe freedom of speech and how they treat their domestic political opponents. This means non-interference in internal affairs: a principle that has not yet been erased from the UN Charter and international law.
❓ How do the values of democracy affect the sovereignty of states and what are the limits of sovereignty in the context of a global value policy?
❓ Can non-Western (and actively criticised by the West) countries conduct a discourse on democracy?
👉 Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, writes about this.
🔗 Non-Western Democracy and Its Interpretation
#Morality_and_Law #democracy #West #China #Russia
@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club
Therefore, an attempt to carry out counterplay in this field looks quite natural. It also reveals the broader context of the creation and consolidation of a kind of united front of China and Russia in the face of growing pressure from the United States. This united front can be called anti-Western or, if you will, anti-imperialist, although the terms are debatable.
If such a united front is taken as a given of modern world politics, then it is logical that China and Russia should form their own coordinated value and ideological narrative, including the issues of democracy (why not), in spite of the implicit paradox of this approach. In addition, the recent failure of the United States to promote democracy in Afghanistan provides additional evidence for this.
The plus for Russia and China is that they do not ask the presidents of other countries questions about how their elections were held, how they observe freedom of speech and how they treat their domestic political opponents. This means non-interference in internal affairs: a principle that has not yet been erased from the UN Charter and international law.
❓ How do the values of democracy affect the sovereignty of states and what are the limits of sovereignty in the context of a global value policy?
❓ Can non-Western (and actively criticised by the West) countries conduct a discourse on democracy?
👉 Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club, writes about this.
🔗 Non-Western Democracy and Its Interpretation
#Morality_and_Law #democracy #West #China #Russia
@valdai_club — The Valdai Discussion Club
Valdai Club
Non-Western Democracy and Its Interpretation
The issues of democracy and its interpretation are now among the most acute in international relations. They are closely related to the issue of values and value policy. The key disagreement revolves around whether or not the perception of democracy should…
🌐 If you look at human history, as a rule, political actions are explained by the desire to achieve the most good for the largest number of people.
But the concepts of “the good” have always been different. There is the salvation of the soul with the help of true faith, there is freedom, including freedom of religion, and there is simple prosperity, and protection from enemies, and much, much more.
Recently, the mainstream interpretation of the good, developed mainly in the so-called Western countries, but, of course, not only there, is based on humanistic values associated with human rights and the opposition of democracy to authoritarianism and/or totalitarianism.
In a democracy, people are supposed to make their own decisions, find a balance of interests, live in a legal system that protects everyone, and in general their quality of life improves more or less uniformly. So everyone gets better and better. Authoritarianism, according to the same mainstream zeitgeist, limits people, makes them victims of arbitrariness, toys in the hands of the authorities. In this sense, the goal of historical development is the establishment of democracy everywhere.
Of course, this approach greatly oversimplifies reality. A correct system of coordinates, a system of terms is needed, which — when discussing what is happening in the world — we will understand it approximately the same way, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/chairman-speech/times-of-great-confusion/
#valdaiclub #WorldOrder #democracy #authoritarianism
@valdai_club
But the concepts of “the good” have always been different. There is the salvation of the soul with the help of true faith, there is freedom, including freedom of religion, and there is simple prosperity, and protection from enemies, and much, much more.
Recently, the mainstream interpretation of the good, developed mainly in the so-called Western countries, but, of course, not only there, is based on humanistic values associated with human rights and the opposition of democracy to authoritarianism and/or totalitarianism.
In a democracy, people are supposed to make their own decisions, find a balance of interests, live in a legal system that protects everyone, and in general their quality of life improves more or less uniformly. So everyone gets better and better. Authoritarianism, according to the same mainstream zeitgeist, limits people, makes them victims of arbitrariness, toys in the hands of the authorities. In this sense, the goal of historical development is the establishment of democracy everywhere.
Of course, this approach greatly oversimplifies reality. A correct system of coordinates, a system of terms is needed, which — when discussing what is happening in the world — we will understand it approximately the same way, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/chairman-speech/times-of-great-confusion/
#valdaiclub #WorldOrder #democracy #authoritarianism
@valdai_club
Valdai Club
Times of Great Confusion: On the Concepts by Which We Comprehend the World
A correct system of coordinates, a system of terms is needed, which — when discussing what is happening in the world — we will understand it approximately the same way, writes Valdai Club Chairman Andrey Bystritskiy.