The fight over the meaning of democracy

I recently had an apocalyptic nightmare in which I was part of the last remaining group of people willing to fight for an odd idea that almost nobody knew anything about: democracy. A few days later, I read about how China labeled itself a democracy in response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit. I soon realized that my nightmare could well be materializing in real life.  

The response included a paper by the Communist Party entitled “China: Democracy That Works,” according to which “there is no fixed model of democracy; it manifests itself in many forms.” As such, the party identifies a “Chinese-style democracy” that is “to be used to solve the problems that the people want to solve.”

This attempt to re-signify “democracy” is not fortuitous. As discussed by The Brazilian Report earlier this year, several indicators suggest a global trend towards autocratization. The reframing of the term by Chinese autocrats must be understood within this context, as it is...