On Sunday, April 8th, 2018, Viktor Orbán secured his third term as Hungary’s President. Unheard of in the United States, his third-term presidency continues an undemocratic wave seen around the world. In The Netherlands, Mark Rutte is serving his fourth term as Prime Minister. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has started hers. Russian President Vladimir Putin won his fifth term, and China’s Communist Party awarded President Xi Jinping indefinite rule.
As we see democratically elected emperors spring up around us, rotative democracy’s waning prestige points to a conflict, a global conflict. I believe it stems from the growing divide between the countryside and the city, namely between diverging interests of rural and urban voters. No side is right or wrong, but in a stagnating economy, each side can only defend its way of life at the expense of the other.
