INTRODUCTION

The purpose of my essay is twofold. Initially, I intend to explore the failure of educational systems to deliver on the notion of a ‘well-informed’ citizenry and how this has detrimentally impacted the democratic consensus which the ‘west’ has maintained since the end of the second world war eliciting a shift towards populist politics. Secondly, I wish to delve into the means by which democracy is threatened on a national (UK) and global scale by a rise in anarchist or authoritarian predilections among the population and whether this is as a result of citizens being ill-informed.

The state of democracy is one that has become a highly contemporaneous issue in recent years. Kamala Harris partially ran her failed campaign on the basis of the preservation of American democracy marking out Donald Trump as an authoritarian. Trump has now been president for over one hundred days. China, under the guise of Xi Jinping, is the world's second largest economy by GDP as of 2025 ($17.79 trillion), and is an authoritarian regime and has seen perhaps the fastest economic growth out of any nation in the history of the world. The World Population Review’s 2025 statistics indicate there are more than double the number of completely authoritarian states in the world than there are full democracies.

Whilst this barrage of alarming facts are perhaps a harsh pill to swallow, they are nonetheless vital to our understanding of the state of the democratic system in the current global order.

The notion that some know better than others and so they (and they alone) are fit to rule is one that has swept across the world to formulate nations of authoritarian disposition in some of the most fractious or economically rich parts of the world. The world is writhing with Hobbesian ‘Leviathans’ and autocratic absolutists. Even those nations that were early proponents of democracy appear challenged by these threats when elected leaders style themselves in a despot’s chic.

Furthermore, in tackling this question I must establish the terms upon which I argue my case. Whilst the degree to which a person is well-informed is not for me to judge, for the purposes of this essay well-informed equates to a person who has undergone a moderate degree of education, that has a moderate understanding of political systems and that is free thinking. These are terms hard to identify in statistics but I shall endeavour to do my best. My final foreword to this essay is taken from lines 2-6 of ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats:

“The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;”

Essay

The overarching societal threat that is rooted in this question is perhaps the rise of populist style politics on both sides of the political spectrum. Those movements that seek to exploit the lacking political education or in-depth understanding of governmental institutions that a political scholar, journalist or parliamentarian may wield. It is a style of politics that one can trace back to the origins of democracy in 5th century Athens, where rule by the people equated to rule by a mob and where education was limited to those aspiring to a career as a smooth-talking solicitor. It was guided by the populist silver-tongues of the patrician Pericles and tanner Cleon who whilst shrouding Athens in glory charted a devastating plague and ultimately the destruction of the seemingly omnipotent Delian league. From its ancient genesis, Democracy has been intertwined with a populism that then and now can isolate politics to a class of orators, not policy makers.

The first apparent problem that arises here may originate within the education systems which we insist are designed to serve us for later life but perhaps fail to educate future generations of their basic civic responsibilities. Civic responsibilities that are not only to oneself but for the health of our democracy.

Turnouts at elections appear to be slipping from their peak in 1950 (83.9%), hitting an all time low in 2001 at 59.1% of the population. Disenfranchisement appears to be a defining factor of populist movements. 45% of people do not trust a government of any political party to govern. 58% of people say that they could never trust a politician of the current political parties in the UK. The ‘populares’ of our politicians offer people what they want, quickly; they prey on human passions, urges and emotions. However, the fact remains that a modern democratic society is not fast, it is not guided by urges and emotions but by a cold rationalism that does not and cannot speak to the hearts of those who were not taught of the vitality of its objectiveness for our functioning and the preservation of our rights and liberties. A large number of people do not feel that they impact politics or that politics has any bearing on them other than to provide them entertainment or a damning sense of despair.

Furthermore, society in the past 40 years has shifted beyond recognition with the development of social media and technologies beyond the imaginations of some of the best sci-fi novelists. Social media has birthed a partisanship in politics that has only served to the detriment of democracy. I fear that as the usership of platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram has increased, tangible political engagement has slumped. People who have not the education to determine the predatorial nature of a post or short-video, have fallen victim to a single view or creed. The recent 2024 election showed a significant disparity between those who had a college degree and those who didn't (those without being more likely to vote for Donald Trump).

This is what I would assert is the object of education to prevent. One ought to be taught to analyse, to digest and piece together a viewpoint of one’s own volition via reading and personal exploration. Only 1 in 5 8-18 year olds reported that they read something daily in their free time and 8.6% of children do not have a single book at home. This is a stark failure. How can a person be ‘well-informed’ if they desire not to be informed at all or don’t have access to the facilities that would enable them to be informed. Education ought to push and challenge assertions. Social media propagates anger and single-mindedness. ‘Us’ and ‘them’.

Antagonism is fuel to the fire of anti-democratic populism.

Social media was at first thought to be one the greatest acts of democratic equalization, granting all people a hive of knowledge to break barriers to literacy, free-thinking and enable those without the tools and access to become intelligent ‘well-informed’ people. Social mobility has risen only incrementally, however, rigid class structures are no longer major parts of our society according to voter reports. Voters are no longer guided by their class community or their intellectual ‘caste’. However, it is what now guides the electoral compass that may threaten democracy around the world. When one inspects the void of electoral motivation a beast ascends from the depths, and it is from the net that I would assign this balrog of fury that sows discontent and rage among our peoples.

Perhaps to label the rise of support for authoritarian-style politics as a growth in the degree to which citizens are ill-informed is a cruel presumption by predominantly centrist intellectuals, who, like myself, cannot hope to understand the complexities and struggles of lives wherein education and specifically political education was not a priority. The notion that these feelings of discontent, declinism and defeatism regarding the state of democracy and politics in the UK and in nations across the globe are simply something to disregard as inflamed tabloidesque babble rather than a genuine political position is dangerous. To equate them with lack of political consciousness is equally perilous.

What lies at the heart of this matter is how we consume our media. The number of people reading broadsheet newspapers. Fallen. The number of people watching news on their televisions. Fallen. The number of people reading long-form articles. Fallen.

Clicktivism is the new party membership.

People are much more inclined to like or repost a video shaming a politician or a short-video with an uplifting soundtrack than they are to go out and vote. Clicktivism doesn’t tick the ballot. This exposes a different political world than the one which exists in actuality. One where there is great hatred for decent and indecent political figures alike, one guided by partisanship, one guided by often harmful conspiracies and finally, one generating division like never before. Is this the kryptonite to our democracy?

Finally, I now turn to an alternate side of this discussion, towards that which might be seen as more tangible alternate threats to democracy beyond the degree to which the citizenry are well informed. These threats echo both poles of the political x-axis: authoritarianism and libertarianism. In some senses this is ‘Beyond Left and Right’ though I am afraid Giddens has already patented such a succinct phrase. It is between these antithetical poles that much of the battle for democracy is being fought and dare I say lost. It is between these trenches that democracy is most imperilled.

As I mentioned in my introduction, there are now a very large number of authoritarian states guiding global sentiment towards the democratic tradition of nations like the UK. When one dares to scroll through the vast abyss of Tik Tok or Instagram one will almost certainly be assaulted by a barrage of ‘shorts’ detailing the immense construction developments taking place in China or UAE and then we are forced to return to the drill moc-georgian botches or the dull soviet style apartments we proclaim our habitats at home, of course temptation, envy and jealousy ought to flow through our blood.

It appears to the naked eye that in some authoritarian states, there lies nothing but plush apartments, staggeringly low crime statistics and plenty for all. It appears that this was not enabled by any elected body or assembly but by a Politburo President or Crown Prince. Many will undoubtedly yet justifiably look towards such marvels as appear possible in Shenzhen, Beijing or Dubai and wonder why such is not the case or made possible in nations with such a proud history for pioneering or developing as those in Europe. There is a simple but uncomfortable truth about this. When we enable ourselves the right to choose and the bureaucratic tangle that allows democracy to function, we commit to a certain slowness and gradualism that simply does not satiate the fast-paced appetite for change that many demand of our governments who simply do not have the power to executive order their policy into action. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Chongqing was.

Alternatively, there exists an inalienable desire among certain populations for a neo-libertarianism that borders on anarchism. Some in our rural communities feel so disconnected from the jungles of Whitehall or the faux-marble of the Capitol that they reject the institutions of our democracy. It is certainly no new theory that these rejectionists (on both sides of the political spectrum) are kindling to populist movements across the world in liberal-democracies but nonetheless perhaps one of the greatest symptoms of a world that moves so fast but that stands by democratic institutions that can hardly seem to stay afloat or handle what happened five years ago let alone have the luxury to formulate a ten-year-plan for any change.

Our democratic institutions are drenched in a traditionalism that many seek to exorcize. It is a hard admission to make; there has to be change.

Concluding this essay, the degree to which citizens of a democracy are well-informed is certainly an issue that imperils the state of our democratic system. The education system that ought to aid in enabling a healthier, more engaged citizenry has stalled and the social media that was prophesied to broaden the scope of understanding has given way to a hellish trench warfare of partisanship energized by a powder-keg of rage. The state of democracy is seemingly dire. Whichever way our liberal-democratic system turns it sees disenfranchisement, neo-libertarianism bordering on anarchy or simply downright authoritarianism. It is cornered. It is surrounded on all sides. Cannon to the right, left and front. The question remains as to whether politicians will make a doomed charge or mount a valiant defence, sabre in hand.

We need to birth changes in our democracy that give people the feeling that they once again have a say, to give people changes and developments at a pace that keeps up with a world that moves faster and faster and that rebuilds a faith in democracy that appears lost amid marks of weakness and woe.

Bibliography and references:

Hunt, Jeremy (2025) Can we be great again? Published by Swift Press

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War (trans by Rex Warner) Published by Penguin Classics

World population review on democratic nations: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/democracy-countries

Election turnouts: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/may/06/general-election-2010-turnout-since-1945

National centre for Social Research survey on trust in governments:

https://natcen.ac.uk/news/trust-and-confidence-britains-system-government-record-low

National Literacy Trust statistics on reading among young people:

https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-themes/reading/

Sutton trust Opportunity index research on Social mobility:

https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/What-is-Social-Mobility.pdf

Social media usership statistics: