“Anyway, it’s a warning sign,” says political scientist Fritz Plasser. But what is the difference between the two forms of democracy? “An electoral democracy is a system that meets the minimum standards of democracy – free and fair elections, the results of which are unquestioned and legitimize the formation of a government,” explains political scientist Anton Pelinka. “A liberal democracy is more: this includes independent control guaranteed by the judiciary, maximum opportunities for the opposition to control the government, and a pluralistic breadth of the media,” Pelinka said.
“Uncontrolled wild growth in party funding”
However, Pelinka admits that it is not possible to draw an exact boundary between these two forms of democracy. Plasser also struggles with the definition of the term. “But Austria’s deterioration is not surprising given the domestic political reports of the last 1.5 years with resignations of chancellors and U committees,” says Plasser.
Pelinka considers the downgrade to be justified, which is due to the “image of a political character that has become clear since Ibiza: an uncontrolled growth of poorly controlled party funding and, therefore, an unfair distortion of democratic competition, the justified impression that privileges can be bought – example: Siegfried Wolf – and political influence in the judiciary – example: the suspicion of the head of section Pilnacek and the head of the Public Ministry of Vienna”, explains Pelinka to KURIER.
The research team that produced the report attributes Austria’s downgrade to a significant drop in the “indicator of transparent legislation and predictable enforcement”.
Plasser sees it as a problem that transparency laws, like the Freedom of Information Act, have been around for a long time. “This is also reflected in the indicator-based monitoring of the Democracy Report.” In the population and the public there is also a generalized impression of corruption and lack of transparency of elites, politics and institutions.
“Democratic Reform Package”
“It’s time to put together a package of democratic reforms,” says Fritz Plasser. This should include stricter incompatibility clauses, tighter controls on party funding, more transparency and the lifting of official secrecy.
The lowest democratic political level to which Austria has now fallen is not final. “The paradox is that starting public debate on these conditions could actually allow for a better ranking of Austria,” concluded political scientist Anton Pelinka.
Incidentally, the situation has also deteriorated globally: in 2012, there were 42 liberal democracies. By 2021 there will be just 34, the lowest number since 1995. Most of the world’s 3.4 billion people live in electoral autocracies.