DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

This paper takes a look at the current state of Western democracy and the crises looming within it. Financialization of the democratic system, evident in the far-reaching influence of well-funded interest groups; emergence of the new media platforms that can sway public opinion almost instantly; the growing influence of digital technology giants due to the vast amount of user data that they possess; the overall influence of the Internet as an abstract entity; the failure of the education system unable to cope with modern day challenges – these are some of the factors that have significantly eroded the Western democracies for the past several decades. The text uses both discourse and content analysis in a complementary way. It is the author’s opinion that the factors listed in this paper indicate that Western democratic regimes are likely to transform into some forms of oligarchy, authoritarianism or, most worryingly, ultra-modern manifestations of totalitarianism aided by the array of modern technologies and methods of mass legitimization.