Does Democracy have a future in the 2020 multi-crisis?

Abstract

This essay deals with the evolution of political institutions in human civilization, presenting the evolution of «political power» evolving from the Neolithic Revolution to the present day, following these milestones: the archaic thought of theocracy as the original foundation of legitimacy of authority, passing to the Hellenic «exception» with its non-theocratic democracy, and on to the Augustinian conception of the relative autonomy of the city of men from the city of God, which is a prelude to the secular society of modernity, established in the Peace of Westphalia. We address the consolidation of nineteenth-century liberalism and the conservative-authoritarian reaction of the twentieth century, which is consolidated in the loss of credibility of democratic institutions in the emergence of the Covid-19 Pandemic. We review some current thinkers and establish an uncertain future that depends on the institutional reconversions carried out in the post-pandemic stage, based on a Decalogue by Sartori.