Political scientists and commentators maintain that democracy “dies” due to the degradation and weakness of its institutions.
But in reality the focus should be placed first on the political leadership (presidents, legislators, judges, officials) that lead the democratic/republican institutions.
It is she who degrades and weakens them when she concentrates, abuses and corrupts power for her own benefit, persecutes and eliminates opponents, or commits or attempts electoral fraud or a veiled self-coup in slow motion to stay in power.
But democracies in danger of collapsing (a less terminal concept than “dying”) can also be protected and saved, and their collapse can be prevented.
Democracies are saved and flourish when there are leaders and citizens willing to defend them even on the battlefield.
In the short term, what saves a democracy is the resistance of citizens and their leaders to abuses, arbitrariness, transgressions of the democratic order and violations of human and political rights.
A paradigmatic example of how a democracy is saved is found in the United States, the bastion of liberal democracy in the world.
After the November 2020 elections, American democracy suffered an attempted self-coup by former President Trump.
He and his acolytes, with the help of the Fox News network, rejected and challenged the results for alleged fraud in more than sixty state and federal lawsuits, including the Supreme Court.
All rejected due to lack of merit or evidence.
Not even his own attorney general could find any evidence of fraud.
Trump also called on the electoral authority of the State of Georgia to modify the results in his favor, in an unusual abuse of power and attempted fraud.
He also asked legislators and state and national electoral authorities of his party not to certify the results that were to be sent and counted on January 6, 2021 at the Capitol (National Congress);
and urged his vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify and proclaim, as appropriate, the elected Joe Biden.
The coup attempt included the unprecedented and tragic attack by a Trumpist mob on the Capitol, to abort the proclamation and the transfer of power to Biden (more than a hundred seditionists have already been convicted).
That is to say, what saved North American democracy was the courage and democratic conviction of a political leadership that resisted Trump's coup onslaught.
Independent media such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and TV networks such as CNN and NBC also tenaciously opposed the coup attempt.
In other latitudes, resistance to the violations of the democratic order came not only from the opposition political leadership but from the citizens themselves and the media with their opposition, rebellion and street protests, as occurred against President Fujimori's attempted self-coup in Peru in 1992 or that of President Serrano in Guatemala in 1993 or that of Evo Morales in Bolivia in 2019, or against the attempt to overthrow President Wasmosy in Paraguay in 1996.
But the resistance and civic rebellion have not been enough to break away from the dictatorships of Ortega in Nicaragua or that of Maduro in Venezuela, which are sustained through overwhelming repression, including imprisonment, torture, disappearance and exile of opponents.
This despite US sanctions or calls for dialogue and full elections, condemnations and non-recognition expressed in the OAS by its members - actions that have failed to restore democracy in those countries.
The lack of “ideological” cohesion among its members prevents progress with coercive multilateral economic/financial or military measures.
The international defense of democracy can help prevent the breakdown of the democratic order or help restore it, but ultimately the survival of democracy depends on the will and courage of the local opposition to defend or recover it.
In the long term, the most appropriate strategy to save and strengthen democracy is to promote and inculcate democratic political culture through a formal and informal educational process.
"It's education, stupid," a political consultant would say.
Instrumental and fundamental in this process are the socializing agents of the community (family, school, university, political parties, media).
The problem is, however, that the educational strategy does not seem urgent to the politicians in power, who seek immediate results with electoral benefits.
A democracy survives and is consolidated when the values and practices of democratic political culture predominate in its leadership and citizens, including respect for the constitution and republican institutions, moderation, modesty, pragmatism and the willingness to negotiate and build alliances, consensus and governance;
which implies understanding that the democratic order imposes limits on the power of the majority and seeks to prevent the accumulation and abuse of power, as well as protect and respect the ideas and values of minorities.
Democracy is more than elections;
It is a way of life and a project in permanent construction towards an ideal of freedom, justice, equality and human dignity;
It will never die and attempts will always be made to restore it where it has been attacked or interrupted.
Rubén M. Perina is an international analyst and former OAS official