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Covid-19: Infecting Democracy
Freedom of assembly has been suspended. The free movement of citizens has been significantly curtailed. Sporting and cultural events have been banned. Even a kickaround at the local park risks a response from authorities keen to confine people to their homes. Drinking in bars is tragically forbidden, as is any number of far more wholesome hobbies. In many cases, even going to work is now illegal. A government, voted out of office months ago, clings to power while a fresh election is considered to be all but impossible.
This is not some authoritarian dystopia conjured up by a deranged conspiracy theorist, as I am sure you realise. Instead, it is life in Ireland under “The Great Lockdown” of 2020. In the face of a pandemic that threatens to kill multitudes, we have temporarily traded in our democratic rights for the wellbeing and health of the general population. To do otherwise would have been to invite great disaster.
Of course, Ireland’s experience is not unique; much of the world has, to a lesser or greater degree, enacted similar measures. Citizens are in lockdown across the globe.
So too is democracy.
Civil liberties have been suspended. States of emergencies have been declared. Elections are being cancelled. Police forces have acquired new powers that enable them to order people to return to their homes or face…
