mueller23_ZOLTAN MATHEPOOLAFP via Getty Images_orbanparliament

Cuidado con las leyes para combatir al virus

Mar 31, 2020 Jan-Werner Mueller

PRINCETON – No hay dudas de que el coronavirus es una emergencia global, como tampoco de que los gobiernos la utilizarán para ampliar sus poderes. Y una vez la amenaza haya pasado, es probable que algunos de ellos no renuncien a esos nuevos poderes.

Resulta crucial que los partidos de oposición concuerden en términos generales con las medidas para enfrentar lo que parece una excepcional crisis de salud pública. Pero la línea entre gobierno y oposición no se puede difuminar en nombre de la “unidad nacional”. Las críticas de los líderes de la oposición no se deberían descalificar como “peleas intestinas” ilegítimas. Y se debe fortalecer, no debilitar, los mecanismos que permiten que la oposición haga rendir cuentas a los gobiernos por sus medidas.

Las emergencias tienen dos efectos: en los estados democráticos, concentran el poder en el ejecutivo. Por lo general, los líderes que reclaman nuevos poderes pueden contar con el apoyo de los ciudadanos. Incluso el Presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, cuyo desempeño ha sido desastroso desde el comienzo, se está beneficiando de una dinámica de unidad nacional frente a la crisis.

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j. von Hettlingen Mar 31, 2020

Jan-Werner Mueller warns against political leaders across the globe exploiting the coronavirus crisis to pass emergency laws and legislation to expand their power. He urges activist groups and opposition parties to step up their vigilance. They also need to ensure that checks and balances are robust to contain excessive executive power, and safeguard an effective functioning of the government, while preventing it from abusing and hanging onto power, once the crisis is over.
The author says in times of emergency the opposition must support appropriate measures proposed by the government, while holding it “strictly to account.” But the line between the two camps “must not be blurred” in the name of “national unity.” And a responsible head of state should not brand “criticism by opposition leaders” as “illegitimate ‘infighting.’” Meanwhile the “mechanisms that allow oppositions to hold governments accountable must be strengthened, not weakened.” Indeed, it is how a normal country works in a liberal democracy.
Yet in recent weeks we have seen Putin seeking to indefinitely extend his presidency, although the virus has since forced him to postpone a vote that could have allowed him to stay in power until 2036.
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of delaying his impending court proceedings due to COVID-19, allowing him to remain in office. Security agencies have also been ordered to track users’ data without their consent.
The Hungarian parliament handed the country's populist, autocratic leader, Viktor Orban, the power to rule by decree for as long as he sees fit, and jailing journalists on trumped up charges, like disseminating false information or obstructing the state’s crisis response.
The pandemic legislation has the power to restrict people from gathering in large numbers, and angry citizens from taking to the streets. Urging people to observe “social distancing” and under the pretext of containing the spread of COVID-19, authoritarian leaders use the health hazard to ban protests and “repress legitimate forms of political dissent.” Although these measures seem “entirely reasonable,” they are a Trojan Horse, designed to do away with liberal democratic values.
The author says parliaments in liberal democracies have passed bills that give governments wide-ranging powers unseen before, the legislative and judicial branches must continue to function and serve the people, even during a country-wide lockdown. He points out “how crucial it is for democracies properly to institutionalize the role of an opposition,” advising activist groups and opposition parties to go online and perform their duties – as a form of conducting “distance democracy.”
The fear of an incremental erosion of democracy is real. Even established democracies like the US under Trump and the UK under Boris Johnson can be in danger, since the two leaders have showed autocratic streaks, like the desire to “claim powers to hold citizens in detention during the pandemic.”
Some political leaders suggest “plausible” solutions “in the face of the country’s lockdown and the temporary suspension of parliament.” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern proposes a “select committee chaired by the opposition leader, which can hold the government to account.”
The American law scholar Bruce Ackerman calls for an ingenious mechanism of a “super-majoritarian escalator”: laws and decrees can be renewed periodically, but only if ever larger majorities agree to do so. This would focus political debate on the question of whether a return from the new to the old normal is possible.”
He meant to cast the spotlight on the protection of basic rights, in an age of terrorism, when George W. Bush's "war on terror" under the "Patriot Act" was a means to an end.
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Keevan Morgan Mar 31, 2020

I agree with the classical liberal headline stated premise of let's not cede unnecessary permanent power to the head of state because of a temporary crisis, and to be wary even a temporary grant of such power will be made permanent by the tyrant's overt action or the mute consent of the governed.

On the other hand, that's all that needs to be said. There is no reason to read this particular article beyond the sentence that Trump has been a disaster from the start.

The power-grabbers before Covid-19 were Pelosi and Schumer, Biden and the Sanders and all their allies. And, it is they who scream Trump is not taking on enough dictatorial power that they themselves seek to wield as early as January, 2021.
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