Alonso
Making democracy durable
Alonso's ambition
Alonso Bernardo Tamez Vélez from Mexico City, currently studying a MSc in Political Communication.
My ambition is to explore ways in which we can ensure that democracy endures in the internet era.
Last century, the ideological battle was mainly between democracy and communism.
Having won that battle, democracy now faces a new authoritarian option known as the “China” or the “Russia” model, both of which have various characteristics of market economies, but with a more authoritarian scheme on the political branch.
When this new model has economic or political victories, it challenges democracy as we know it by making itself more attractive to people in many nations.
My ambition is to publish my first book on how we can make democracy more “suitable” for the internet era, and for a world that features these new more authoritarian alternatives. It is clear that the hyperconnected scenery in various democracies tends to increase the weight of “form” politics – gimmicks, slogans, dramatization, radicalization, purely symbolic proposals – and promote a decrease in weight of “substance” politics – long-term solutions, data-based policy making, fact-checking, sensible political narrative, achievable proposals. But we must find ways to ensure that democracy continues to deliver profound and durable results.
The topic is important to me because I believe that as Mexico is a young democracy we need to engage in a profound discussion on why democracy matters.
For achieving my ambition, I need persistence for my writing and precision in my data.