Opinion | US should not encourage Taiwan to court destruction
- The vibrant democracy in Taiwan is a global success story, but thumbing its nose at China and hoping the US will deal with the consequences is not the way to go
- However, the US Congress lacks the courage to tell Taiwan to avoid pushing red lines, even when this is of critical importance to preserving democracy on the island
Properly functioning democracy is the only truly modern form of governance. The just powers of governance, in other words the legitimacy of democratic systems, rest on elections that reflect the will of the people, and such systems rely on checks and balances to prevent the concentration of power that leads to tyranny.
These core features permit enormous diversity in the particular forms of democracy, with each form taking on national characteristics. However, democracies contain the seeds of their own destruction. They are dependent on the middle classes for their vitality, they cannot function without compromise, they are vulnerable to popular passions and demagogues, and they are capable of precipitating wars.
Democracies cannot function in polarised societies. We have experienced this once before. The result was a bloody civil war. Because of these deficiencies, democracies have a significant mortality rate.
