Retrenchment in Class and Identity Politics: A Human Rights Theory of Democracy

• In Event: Theories of Human Rights

Abstract

Liberal democracies are continuously challenged and increasingly in danger. Instability of democracy has been typically associated with developing countries since many democratic systems established in the 1950s and 1960s in newly independent states gave way to military coups and other authoritarian take overs. However, “backsliding democracy” started to appear all around the worlds. The 1990s’ euphoria about Eastern Bloc countries’ transition to democracy progressively turned into disappointments. We see democratic principles and institutions threatened even in “established democracies.” The rise of populism and authoritarianism, which employ combinations of anti-women, anti-LGBT+, anti-immigrant and other discriminatory discourses and policies, also challenges the already precarious human rights. This paper involves a comparative study of the decline of democracies in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, which can be considered as dominated by class and identity politics, respectively. Noting the close relationship between human rights and democracy, it presents a human rights theory of democracy that explains the decline of democracy by the gap between different types of human rights. On the deterioration or stagnation of social and economic rights, it draws attention to the impact of classical and neoliberal economic paradigms.

Author

• Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, University of Connecticut-Storrs