“Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

—Winston Churchill, speech to House of Commons, November 1947

Winston Churchill’s famous quote rings as true now as it did during the many threats to democracy that he fought so bravely during his long career in public life. From standing up to Adolf Hitler as part of the great democracy alliance, which brought down the horrific tyrant, to his famous Iron Curtain speech, which warned of the growing threat of tyrannical Communism in the era of Joseph Stalin, Churchill had the historic perspective on how fragile and threatened democracies can be.

As we face the new year of 2019, it is cause for concern that some of the world’s key democracies are enduring threats to their viability. Consider the following:

• British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is hanging by a thread over the inept way it has attempted to handle Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. 

May’s plan for leaving the EU has been vigorously denounced by major figures in her own Conservative Party, and her government survived a no-confidence vote by a razor thin margin of one. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British Labour Party and a likely successor

to May if she is ousted, has raised grave concerns within the British Jewish community, whose leaders, such as former British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, have denounced Corbyn as an anti-Semite. 

The United States and Great Britain have shared what they call a “special relationship” through two world wars, the Cold War and its aftermath. A wedge between the two historic democracies does not bode well for stability in general and for British Jewry in particular.

• In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been considered the lynchpin of our NATO Allies, and who had been the go-to leader when other EU members were in financial straits, lost her strong support in a backlash over her decision to allow 1.1 million immigrants to enter Germany. Her hope was that these immigrants would assimilateinto German society and provide a more youthful labor force. However, the immigrant population from the Middle East, especially those fleeing Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, proved impervious to “assimilation,” and Merkel was forced to resign as leader of the centrist Christian Democratic Union, which has lead stable German governments for most of the post World War II and post-Cold War eras. There is no major leader on the horizon who could fill her shoes, and a period of instability in Germany seems likely.

• In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s approval ratings have dropped to the low 30s in a backlash against draconian increases in the price of gasoline and the suspension or reduction of various benefits. For eight weeks, mostly middle-class protesters, wearing symbolic yellow vests, have protested Macron’s policies, ultimately forcing him to give in to all of their demands. Macron’s capitulation partially quenched the political firestorm, but widespread discontent continues to plague the government of France, another historic ally of the West in general and the United States in particular.

Meanwhile, autocrats and dictators seem to be gaining ground in world capitals even as the democracies are reeling:

• Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who blood-thirsty regime is responsible for over 700,000 deaths and over 11 million people driven from their homes, and who has used chemical weapons against his own people, remains firmly in power in Damascus.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took advantage of President Donald Trump’s hasty and unwise decision to remove 2,000 American troops from an anti-Assad enclave in Syria, by indicating his own Turkish Army will take over the U.S. role. Erdogan has threatened the Kurdish fighters there who had been the only dependable and effective fighting force against ISIS. Assad’s continued rule has been propped up by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, the latter of which was found to have recently built a network of tunnels from Lebanon into Israel.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly taking steps to remove presidential term limits from the Russian Constitution so that he might conceivably serve for life. Score another one for opponents of real democracy.

• The ruling coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has collapsed and “snap elections” are set for April. While Netanyahu remains ahead in most polls among Israeli voters, he faces possible removal from office if he is indicted on various charges of corruption, including bribery and interfering with Israel’s free press.

Adding to all of the above Western Woes is the fact that Trump’s cabinet increasingly resembles a toothless jack-o-lantern with key positions left vacant or run by “acting” department heads.

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had been regarded as Washington’s “Great Moderate Arab Hope,” is believed by the CIA to have ordered the murder of Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the Senate has unanimously condemned this horrific crime. Trump’s refusal to unequivocally condemn the prince by name bodes ill for his long-awaited “deal of the century” peace plan.

Given the above machinations in 2018, we can only hope that the leaders of pro-Western democracies take some strong medicine in the coming year to meet the rising power of dictators, and the decline of those who opposed them.

Robert A. Cohn is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the St. Louis Jewish Light.