Democratic instincts

January 8, 2025

MANILA – To start the new year on a happy note, I thought I’d write about how three countries scored gains toward democracy in 2024, with lessons to offer the Philippines. In two of these countries, the gains were made as a result of elections, with more than 100 countries going to the polls in 2024, and involving almost half of the world’s population.

I chose “democratic instincts” as a title because in recent years, we’ve seen how democracy seems to be almost instinctive in the biological sense of the word and I’m inclined to believe that perhaps the desire for democracy, in the sense of wanting freedom and fairness, is to some extent innate. It’s something we want, something we strive for, maybe even becoming part of human evolution because it contributes to our survival.

At the same time, I believe democracy itself evolves out of collective human experiences. We’ve seen, for example, how early notions of democracy in Greece, one of the early centers of democracy (the word itself derived from Greek), were not meant to be universal, with a distinction between free humans and slaves. Up until the 20th century, as democracies emerged throughout the world, many countries continued to hold back the right to vote—a hallmark of democracy—from women.

For 2024, we start with South Korea, where the incumbent president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in the middle of the night of Dec. 3. What he wasn’t prepared for was the backlash not just from the opposition but from the public, with Seoul’s citizens rushing over to the National Assembly building and demanding that the president withdraw the declaration.

Six hours after its declaration, President Yoon lifted martial law. The fight wasn’t over though, as the