Democracies can show what they can do against autocracies.
(Photo: imago images/YAY Images)
It was haunting, stirring words that Vitali Klitschko chose last week when he joined the Munich City Council. “We are fighting not only for our city, for our country,” said the mayor of Kiev.
“Today we are fighting for values, for principles that Russians are breaking. We are also fighting for you, for everyone in Germany.” And further: “We would rather die than allow aggressors into our city. We will never kneel, we will never be slaves.”
Klitschko is one of Ukraine’s most prominent ambassadors. His words are emblematic of what Russia’s President Vladimir Putin underestimated. “Putin has always suggested that Ukraine is not a real nation because of the differences between East and West. And that many people would welcome Putin’s soldiers with open arms,” says German political scientist Yascha Mounk, who teaches at the American Johns Hopkins University. “But despite all the differences between regions, millions of Ukrainians are even risking their own lives to defend their nation.”
As diverse as it may be, Ukrainian democracy is strong. That, according to Mounk, is becoming clear right now. And Klitschko emphasizes that with his words. They feel connected to the western states – connected in the belief in the free democratic basic order. Mounk has just written a book on this very subject: The Great Experiment. How diversity threatens and enriches democracy.”
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His book comes at a time when strong democracies and alliances are more important than ever. Democracies that are not always uniform, mono-ethnic, but diverse. Peppered with different experiences and backgrounds and yet full of similarities.
End of moral relativism
“At a time when dictatorships like Vladimir Putin’s are gaining power globally, it’s up to us to show that we have an attractive alternative vision and that we are capable of dealing with our problems,” Mounk said in an interview with Handelsblatt .
“We must show that Vladimir Putin is wrong when he says that because of our diversity we are unable to deal with our own problems or to maintain a strong social cohesion.” Putin’s claim that Russia is stronger because less diverse has been proven proven wrong in the last few months.
Mounk, born in 1982, has Ukrainian roots, his grandparents were born there. He himself grew up in Munich, Kiev’s sister city. Accordingly, Mounk observes the German attitude in the past few weeks, according to his own statements, with pleasure.
“The bombing of Ukrainian cities, the death of so many civilians – that made it impossible to continue the traditional moral relativism in German foreign policy,” he says. But: “As long as Germany is dependent on Russian gas, we will remain the weakest link in the western alliance.” Putin can always dictate policy up to a certain point.
Yascha Mounk: The great experiment.
Droemer Verlag
Munich 2022
352 pages
22 euros
“Especially in this context, it is important to have enough social cohesion so that dictators and extremists cannot play us off against each other,” says Mounk. Against the background of German history, this is not so easy.
When the Federal Republic was founded after the Second World War, it was relatively homogeneous. When the guest workers came, the political class promoted the illusion that Germany was not an immigration country and that people would go back to their homeland. But they didn’t.
A learning process that cost the Germans a lot of energy so soon after the war. Still, Mounk is optimistic. A look at history or the distance shows “that we are in a good position compared to most diverse societies”. Internal divisions, and there are also geographical tensions in almost every nation state. Nevertheless, according to Mounk, he believes that most people underestimate the sense of togetherness that exists in Germany.
In his book, he discusses how successful diverse democracies can grow, what role the state and patriotism play in this, and to what extent immigrants and members of other minorities should “integrate” into mainstream society.
A book that is basically the result of a misunderstanding. In an interview in ARD’s “Tagesthemen” in 2018, presenter Caren Miosga Mounk asked why populism was gaining strength in Germany. Mounk’s reply: “We dare here an experiment, unique in history, to transform a mono-ethnic and mono-cultural democracy into a multi-ethnic one. It can work, I think it will work, but of course there are a lot of distortions.”
How the experiment can succeed
A little later, Mounk found himself exposed to a shit storm from people who saw themselves as supposed guinea pigs, racist, indulging in conspiracy theories. He just wanted to express his conviction that democracy can work in a diverse society.
In his book, he describes clearly and in easily understandable language how this “experiment” can succeed. Several things make him confident: Most of the diverse democracies in the world are much more just and inclusive today than they were fifty or a hundred years ago.
“European countries like Germany and Spain have overcome fascism, greatly expanded their ideas of who really belongs in their societies, and built a very diverse everyday culture.”
At the same time, while many ethnic groups share genuine historical similarities, the differences between them are far more fluid than most people realize. Many claims about average differences between members of different groups are grossly exaggerated or completely wrong.”
Nevertheless, Mounk does not conceal the difficulties of various democracies. The issues between majority and minority groups, the apparent differences between ethnic groups in a country.
Whether the experiment really succeeds, “whether a conflict is resolved or escalated, depends on the decisions of those in power, on the ruling institutions and on the extent to which ordinary people are able to maintain trusting and cooperative relationships,” he writes . This probably also applies to the Ukraine war.
Mounk’s book – a valuable contribution today.
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