MARIANNE MERTEN: US’s turn towards plutocracy signals frail state of democracy

US president-elect Donald Trump’s bromance with Tesla, X and SpaceX boss Elon Musk is watched closely across the globe as the presidential transition team to the January inauguration includes at least two billionaires.

As the US seems to morph into a plutocracy — government by the rich for the rich, bluntly put — democracy in 2024 has taken a step back. Objections at this point could underscore Botswana’s peaceful power transition after 58 years of Botswana Democratic Party governance ended in the October 30 elections or SA’s own power shift after the ANC lost outright government control on May 29. Those are good, if not uncomplicated, examples. Tetchiness remains in SA’s government of national unity over who gets to announce what when, and more. Botswana’s former president Ian Khama, who in 2024 switched to the opposition, could remain a potential disrupter in the simmering fallout with now former president Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The year’s first election in Bangladesh on January 7 was less than glowing amid criticism of opposition arrests and intimidation. Five days later it was Taiwan’s turn. SA’s Brics partner, India, sent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party into a coalition. Russia’s early May election, however, returned Vladimir Putin to power with 88.48% after opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in an Artic jail. In mid-July, Rwandan strongman President Paul Kagame did even better, winning with 99.18%. Iran voted in mid-2024, and in early July the UK elections demolished the Tories. In late October, Georgia’s tense and polarised parliamentary election was criticised over irregularities.

Also steeped in controversy is Mozambique’s October 9 election, criticised for “unjustified alterations of election results at polling and district level”, as the EU observers put it. Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo was given more than 70% support, but the opposition Podemos declared its candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, the winner, with 53% claimed as the true polling outcome. Post-election violence erupted as the Constitutional Council still must give its final word. Mondlane, whose lawyer Elvino Dias was killed, remains in hiding. Frelimo has governed Mozambique since 1975. As in the US, much is at stake. Gas and oilfields have propelled Mozambique into serious money, no-one benefiting more than the elite and those controlling government.

In the US, government contracts seem central. It’s public record that Musk’s SpaceX competes with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for US Space Force contracts. The Trump-Musk friendship emerged amid the billionaire’s about $119m in campaign support, an X chat between the two, and Musk’s awarding $1m a day to a voter in each swing state in the last campaigning days.

Plutocracy is not democracy, but then Americans have been deeply dissatisfied with their democracy. Days before the November 5 election, a New York Times/Siena poll showed 45% said democracy is not doing a good job. The independently conducted American Values Survey (held in August to September 2024) showed seven out of 10 respondents believed the US was headed the wrong way. Against this, Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hit all the right buttons; details on proposals such as deporting millions of illegal immigrants, tax cuts or dismantling the “corrupt” criminal justice system proved unimportant.

Democratic disillusionment is not particular to America. Populists and right wingers have made gains in the 2024 global round of elections, from France to Austria and in state elections in Germany, where voters are heading to the polls in early 2025 after the governing coalition collapsed. In SA, the MK party and Patriotic Alliance are populism’s protagonists.

Elections must unfold still in Romania, Croatia and Ghana. Chad’s parliamentary poll scheduled for December 29 closes 2024’s super election year in more than 70 countries representing about 2-billion voters.

But if the results of what’s been dubbed the world’s biggest election year proved anything, it’s that democracy cannot survive in an elite echo chamber or amid cost-of-living crises. To survive, democracy must work for everyone.

• Merten is a veteran political journalist specialising in parliament and governance.