American media: Western democracy is divided, not just us

The Washington Post, July 15th, the original topic: Not only us, Western democratic countries are split. On the same Sunday in June, three major elections held in France, Colombia and Spain showed the basic situation of democracy in our time: the public's dissatisfaction with the government, the collapse of the old parties and characters, and the "constant search for alternatives. ——In the future, more dissatisfaction appears -finds a cycle of other substitutes. "

Screenshot of the Washington Post article

Continuous "turbulent and scattered"

French recent elections highlight the changes that affect almost all democratic countries in the West. Since the 1950s, France has been governed by the left (Socialist Party) or right (Republican Party). In 2017, voters abandoned these political parties, and their candidates failed to enter the second round of the presidential election. Macron was run and won as an intermediate faction, disconnected from any existing political party.

However, when Macron first put forward a policy, it was his turn to be destroyed. Beginning at the end of 2018, the "yellow vest" street protests have caught France for a year of political turmoil. Nevertheless, in April this year, Macron was elected again, and the two traditional political parties were confirmed in the election again. Macron and the far -right "National Alliance" candidate Marina Le Pen competed and eventually won. However, only two months later, when the National Parliament elected, voters suddenly turned around against Macron. The success of the more aggressive political parties on the left and right sides caused the president to lose the majority of the parliament and split the National Assembly to the point of "turbulent and scattered" by an analyst.

The government is more difficult to form

Colombian presidential election tells a similar story. Like France, the two old -fashioned parties, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, collapsed. The current President Ivan Duke is a gentle conservative. In the first quarter of this year, the annual growth rate of the country's economy was 8.5%, and Duke also responded to the large -scale influx of 1.7 million people in Venezuela. Nevertheless, Duke's support rate was only 20%when he left. Faced with some budget difficulties caused by the epidemic of new crown pneumonia, he proposed to increase taxes on many ordinary goods and services, which caused several months of street protests.

On the same day, Spain held an important local election. Since the end of the Buddha Lange era, the country has been governing from the middle left and middle -right political parties that dominates. But since 2014, Spain's politics has been sharply differentiated. This year, a new political party Podemos ("we can") occurred from the spontaneous "angry" street protest movement. From 2015 to 2019, Spain held four national elections in order to set up a stable governance alliance. Over the past five years, Spain's two -party system has been scattered into a bulky five -party system. Pedro Sanchez, Prime Minister of Spain and the leader of the Workers Socialist Party, was forced to form the first joint government in Spain to form a weak majority in the parliament.

But the nearest region election in Spain exposed the dissatisfaction of voters to this fragile government. The most populous Andalusia region of Spain has always been the base of the Socialist Party. However, the Conservative People's Party won in the region's election.

American dissatisfaction

Elections in these different countries show that the dissatisfaction of the people is universal and is easy to get up. However, when emerging political parties or independent candidates are elected, voters will quickly turn their fans to them, which is a continuous turbulent process. In terms of economy, the influence of voters' dissatisfaction originated from the impact of globalization on the income of the middle class and the working class, the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis, and the intensification of inequality. In terms of culture, the conflict between the prevention and control policies and immigration policies of the new crown pneumonia has further exacerbated anger and dissatisfaction. Social media also played a role in helping the flames, which made it possible to mobilize quickly.

In the United States, dissatisfaction with major political parties is no less than other democratic countries. In 2016, the independent person, Bernie Sanders, was almost nominated for the Democratic presidential campaign, and another traditional political bureau Trump won the Republican nomination. At present, the history of Americans with a good job in both parties is the least. Half of Americans are self -proclaimed by independent people, which is the highest proportion of history. The support for the Third Party is also unprecedented: in the Gallop Police Survey last year, 62%of Americans said that they needed a third party.

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