Super election year masks what's really wrong with democracy

Record turnouts and robust competition may feel like a festival but, in many countries, democracy is not solving people's problems. It's in trouble.

- Bhavan Jaipragas

Are we in a global democratic recession? The numbers don't seem to suggest that.

In 2024, the biggest election year in human history, with 3.7 billion people eligible to vote across 72 countries, experts noted strong turnout, vibrant political competition, and only limited success for disinformation campaigns.

The Economist, drawing on data from 27 countries, even noted a drop in election-related violence and protests compared with previous contests.

So, procedurally at least, democracy appears to be thriving. But let's not be fooled by surface-level success.

Beneath this shiny exterior lies a troubling undercurrent of disillusionment, mistrust and dysfunction. This goes beyond doubts about the system itself - trust is eroding in the very people who run it.

In many places, politics no longer feels like actual governance - problems aren't getting fixed today, and there's little thought for the future.

In a Pew survey of 24 countries published in February (including India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, but excluding Singapore), a median of 74 per cent said elected officials in their country did not care what people like them thought.

The pollster said of the results: "One factor driving people's dissatisfaction with the way democracy is functioning is the belief that politicians are out of touch and disconnected from the lives of ordinary citizens."

Instead, as British commentator Stephen Bush put it recently on the affairs in his country, with politicians' fixation on staying in power rather than day-to-day governing, it's more like "staging theatrical set pieces between near-constant electoral clashes".