Ian Ellis: We shouldn’t be cynical about our western democratic processes - what we have is better than the alternatives we see elsewhere

Tim Farron MP commented of Vladimir Putin in Premier Christianity magazine: “None of his three cardboard opponents had any chance of winning. All other significant rivals have been ‘withdrawn’, jailed, exiled, or are dead.”

Indeed, in February the prominent Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in mysterious circumstances in prison and, of course, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a rebellion against Moscow, died last August in a highly suspicious air crash.

Autocracy is a fertile breeding ground for corruption.

Closer to home, the next UK general election, widely expected in the autumn, could be delayed into January (it must be held no later than January 28), but churches particularly in England are already gearing up to organise local hustings with local candidates.

Furthermore, during the recent Lent period, the organisation, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, released a series of reflections on the theme of 'Politics at the Service of the Common Good'.

We know for sure that the United States will hold a presidential election in November.

Fears have been expressed that, if elected, Donald Trump could signal a move in an autocratic direction.

Some have recently suggested that a Trump administration would see only those unwaveringly loyal to him being promoted to his cabinet, but at the same time indicating that he would look for people of clear ability.

Nonetheless, there are evidently plenty of jitters among governments and political parties in Europe about a possible second Trump term, not least as far as the future of NATO is concerned.

Then again, the European Union will be holding its parliamentary elections between June 6-9 and they are causing some concerns, with the think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations, expecting them to see “populist radical right parties gaining votes and seats across the EU”.

The current president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), Greek Orthodox Archbishop Nikitas, has called on citizens to vote for candidates who will support Christian values and ideals.

He said that the EU-wide vote will be taking place at a “very critical time”.

India is now the world's most populous nation and is in fact currently holding a national election which is running in seven phases between April 19 and June 1.

Reportedly with 970 million registered voters, India has about six times the number in the US.

Having the election spread over around six weeks allows politicians more time to get around the massive electorate and also enables electoral security to be better organised.

A major issue facing the people of India is that of freedom itself.

The highly regarded organisation Freedom House, which describes itself as “the oldest American organisation devoted to the support and defence of democracy around the world”, classifies India as a “partially free” country, having downgraded it from “free” in 2021, citing “harassment of journalists, non-governmental organisations, and other government critics”.

While the Economist Intelligence Unit classifies India as a “flawed democracy”, it predicts that the ruling coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will return to power due to “a weak opposition and the high domestic approval rating of the prime minister, Narendra Modi”.

The opposition party, the Indian National Congress, is promising to halt what it says is India's "slide into autocracy".

The foregoing observations surely prompt reflection on a perhaps yet more fundamental theme – democracy itself.

In the western world, democracy is prized for many reasons, not least among them the vision of what Abraham Lincoln described in his famous 1863 Gettysburg Address as “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.

Putting such a vision into effect is not a straightforward exercise but it remains a fundamental democratic ideal.

The origins of democracy go back as far as the fifth century BC Greek city-states, in contrast to rule by elites.

There are differing views as to what extent Christianity helped shape modern democracy, yet whatever the influences were – and they were no doubt many faceted – a strange aspect of our modern and rightful championing of democracy has been highlighted by academic Nick Spencer in his book, 'The Evolution of the West'.

Spencer writes that “we have poor turnouts for national elections, disgraceful ones for European and local ones; unbridled cynicism about our democratically elected politicians; and desperately low levels of party membership and activity”.

Noting the irony, he adds: “In light of this, proposals such as the democratization of the House of Lords or state funding for political parties would be funny if they weren't actually serious.”

In a year of so many national elections it is important that all concerned should not become cynical about our western democratic processes because, despite criticisms that can be levelled, what we have is infinitely more to the common good than the alternatives we see around the world.

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Canon Ian Ellis is a former editor of The Church of Ireland Gazette