Voting Alone is Not Democracy
Putin provides an example for a Politics 101 class.
As he did in Crimea in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to use sham elections as a means of annexing parts of Ukraine. While he will claim proof of popular support from locals who long to be part of Mother Russia, balloting that is done via the barrel of a gun is definitionally illegitimate. WaPo reports: With Kalashnikov rifles, Russia drives the staged vote in Ukraine.
Voting is taking place in portions of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and will last five days, ending Tuesday. The outcome is not in doubt.
The purported referendums are illegal under Ukrainian and international law and would not remotely meet basic democratic standards for free and fair elections. Western leaders, including President Biden, have denounced the process as a “sham” to prepare the ground for Russia’s theft of Ukrainian land.
Here is a map of the regions in question:
Quite clearly the goal is the annexation of the territory so that attacks on said territory will be defined by the Kremlin as attacks on Russia itself.
All of this is pretty straightforward, but as someone who studies democracy, I always find these kinds of maneuvers to be telling, in that sense that while everyone with a modicum of understanding knows the whole thing is a sham, the authoritarian actor still sees the need to try and get some patina of democratic legitimacy for their otherwise clearly anti-democratic actions. Whether it gives political allies a figleaf to cover the ugliness, a way to lie to domestic audiences that already have been steeped in lies, or to simply convince the gullible, there is a certainly power to be had in at least pretending like there is some level of popular endorsement of what is otherwise obviously a put authoritarian power play.
To wit:
Russian media showed images of people lined up outside voting stations, but Ukrainian officials said that they had either bused in from elsewhere or were soldiers wearing civilian clothing. So-called international observers gave their blessing to the proceedings. One of them, Eliseo Bertolasi from Italy, observed the 2018 general elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the unrecognized Moscow-supported separatist state in eastern Ukraine.
Dictators love referenda for this purpose and I think that it speaks to the power of real elections and real democracy that authoritarians are constantly trying to steal some of its magic.
If it weren’t such a brutal display of power to terrorize a population, the desperation of Putin’s military would almost be darkly funny:
Luhova said she spoke to 11 people still living in the Kherson region who told her that they pretend they are not at home, or leave their apartments for extended periods, while the armed groups make their rounds. “People are frightened,” Luhova said.
Serhii Nikitenko, a Ukrainian journalist who said he’s spoken to three friends over the last two days, said that mobile groups also visit schools, hospitals and other workplaces where officials “can collect a certain number of votes.”
Which, I must confess, brings to mind this: In recorded call, Trump pressures Georgia official to ‘find’ votes to overturn election.
“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump says, according to audio of the call. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”
Authoritarians don’t care about legitimately winning votes. They just want to “find” what they need so as to attempt to falsely legitimize their power.
Legitimacy comes via consent as measured by a free and fair process in the context of real competition and via citizens with basic rights. It simply cannot be coerced, but that has never stopped strongmen from trying.
If Putin had any sense, he’d rig the referenda to return overwhelming No votes, and use that as excuse to abandon the war.
Then again, if he had any sense, he’d never have started this whole miserable business.
I think showing up to someone’s house with a gun and making them vote for the folks holding the gun is also a great way to cement power. There’s an external audience that won’t believe the results, and an internal audience that won’t believe the results, and a whole lot of people who know that they Russians can show up at their door with guns at any time.
From Frank Miller’s comic Sin City: “Power don’t come from a badge or a gun. Power comes from lying. Lying big, and gettin’ the whole damn world to play along with you. Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain’t true, you’ve got ’em by the balls.”
I know it’s a comic book from the 1980s, but I have seen nothing that explains modern Republicans and Russians and the slide into fascism nearly as well as that quote.
@Gustopher:..I think showing up to someone’s house with a gun and making them vote for the folks holding the gun is also a great way to cement power.
I know it’s not the same thing but exactly how far removed is this from compulsory franchise where citizens are forced to vote or be subject to legal sanction by the state?
Come to think of it I have not seen alot of advocacy for vote or be punished since Trump was legally installed as President of The United States by the Electoral College.
@Mister Bluster:
Secret ballot? The difference between forced vote and observed way to vote.
@Mister Bluster: Compulsory voting won’t happen here, unless red states, out of their deep compassion for minorities, figure out how to apply compulsion only to cis white men.
There’s a possibility this is all about Putin wanting to to legally use conscripts in Ukraine. He’s facing a hell of a problem with man-power. The mil-bloggers generally say Ukraine’s army is nearly a million now, out numbering them 4:1, and growing every day while the Russian forces are shrinking. Contracts are expiring and there is little hope many will re-up. Recruiting has been dismal to say the least. Putin attempted to use some conscripts early in the war illegally, some units flat refused to fight and they had Russian laws on their side.
Legal justifications tend to fall away in wars as they progress. This one seems to be to be well past the point of empty gestures, so I suspect some practical need is behind it.
Professor Taylor!
A question!
If voting alone is not democracy, does that mean voting in company is preferable?
No to the secret ballot!
😉
@JohnSF: 🙂