Liberal democracy has been on retreat worldwide since the early 21st century. Democracies have been consistently undermined by semi-democratic and anti-democratic parties and leaders. The trend is global and affects virtually every democracy. During the same period have we seen the rise of the three neo-imperialist powers, i.e. China, Iran and Russia.
It is important of course to understand that most governments in the world, including almost all democracies rely on the United States for their very existence. The United States global zone of influence is not an empire as totalitarian enemies of open society consistently claim but a strictly voluntary global network of influence, friendship and common interests. The problem is that the United States alone cannot in the long run compete with China considering China’s far larger demographic size and the reality that China will almost inevitably in the long term economically catch up with the United States.
The European Union historically expanded by offering the economic incentive of EU membership in return for liberalization and democratization. This proved resoundlingy effective in bringing many nations into the realm of liberal democracy. The EU however, strategically erred in not inviting Russia to join the European Union, something which would have provided economic incentives for Russia to liberalize and democratize. This could have removed the only threat to peace in Europe. Nevertheless, the EU failed to come up with a mechanism that would have ensured that member states remained liberal democracies. The emergence of governments in central Europe that undermine liberal democracy is certainly worrying and Brussels is powerless in the face of those trends.
In order to retain American primacy in the world, we need to create a democratic commonwealth with a universal liberal democratic charter. It needs several pillars, 1) a global democratic defense alliance, 2) a global free trade zone for liberal democracies only, 3) a global liberal-democratic universal court empowered to cancel antidemocratic laws and antidemocratic decisions by governments, 4) a network of national Offices for the Protection of the Constitution, one in each nation state on the German model and 5) a universal prohibition against totalitarian and other antidemocratic organizations and totalitarian/antidemocratic propaganda/agitation.
There would have to be an expulsion mechanism whereby a nation state that did not abide by a decision of the universal court would be expelled from the commonwealth by decision of the universal court. There would also be a mechanism whereby national constitutions would be accepted upon accession to the liberal democratic commonwealth.
The commonwealth free trade zone and the global defense alliance would provide an effective incentive for nations around the world to liberalize and democratize and the threat of potential expulsion from the commonwealth would ensure that member nations remain liberal democracies.
Aliyah Organization 