Democracy under siege? At summit, there’s more to the story.

Farmers in India, voters in Honduras and Gambia, even protesters in communist Cuba – what they have in common is some recent victory secured through the exercise of rights guaranteed in democratic governance.

As President Joe Biden hosts more than 100 countries for his promised Summit for Democracy Thursday and Friday, much of the talk in Washington and other capitals is on how this summit is something like a firetruck responding to a raging global blaze – of democratic backsliding, proliferating coups, and disaffection with democracy’s ability to deliver.

But events in India, Honduras, Gambia, Cuba, and indeed many other countries suggest a more positive role that the summit needs to play as well. For all the frustrations with democracy and evidence of authoritarianism’s march, many people in all parts of the world still have faith in democratic governance and aspire to the human and political rights that are its foundation.

If millions of farmers in India were able to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to back down on deeply unpopular farm laws last month after a year of nonstop protests, it was largely because farmers believed their rights under India’s democracy could bring a change.

Likewise, Honduran voters last month rejected an incumbent president – and warnings from the military and economic elites – to elect a leftist (and the country’s first female) president. And in Gambia, voters this week decided to keep their incumbent president in the country’s first election without a dictator on the ballot.

Even in Cuba, a movement pressing for political freedoms and economic justice – and led largely by social-media-wielding young people – has at least managed to win government acknowledgment that living conditions need to change.

Given a global landscape where hopes for democracy remain just as salient as the much-touted frustrations, many democracy experts and pro-democracy activists say the task for Mr. Biden’s initiative will be as much about bolstering the world’s democratic aspirations as it is about addressing the challenges.

“The democratic recession of the last 15 years is real, but it’s not a uniform tendency – just as some countries have fallen backward, some have moved forward,” says Thomas Carothers, a leading authority on international support for democracy, human rights, and civil society at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

“A democratic recession doesn’t mean people around the world have lost interest in democracy. What we see is that many people want to live in free societies,” he adds. “This summit is a good opportunity to recognize that, and for the United States to show it’s going to be there supporting and nurturing this desire for democratic governance and freedoms.”

Freedom House, the Washington-based human rights and civil liberties organization known for its annual freedom index, reports finding growing support for democracy, even as its annual surveys find widespread retreat from political freedoms – including this year within the United States.

“We definitely see enormous support among populations and average people for the concept of democracy, while what has been declining is support for those in power” amid disappointment in the way democracy has been practiced, says Sarah Repucci, vice president of research and analysis at Freedom House and co-author of a recent report delving into 15 years of democratic backsliding.

“People have been willing to go into the streets in support of the democratic rights they have,” says Ms. Repucci, citing the “mass movements” that have shaken the world, from Hong Kong to Chile, since 2019. “Often those actions have been most intense when rights have been interrupted or challenged,” she adds, “in cases like Belarus, Myanmar, Sudan, or the successful movement we’ve seen among farmers in India.”

Response to China

For some, Mr. Biden’s summit for democracy is really about China’s rise and challenging the seemingly rising appeal of an authoritarian model Beijing touts as more effective at meeting 21st-century challenges. The summit is organized around three “pillars” or themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights.

But some Asia experts counter that if anything, support for democracy in the region is higher than ever because of the authoritarian example China is setting.

“What we’re seeing in surveys of Asia is that the U.S. is losing its mojo and China is rising. … But at the same time we’re seeing higher support than ever before for democratic norms, less support than ever before for autocracy,” says Michael Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The trend is definitely towards support for democracy and democratic principles as the defining norms for Asia.”

Mr. Green, who served as special Asia assistant in the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, cites evidence beyond surveys including creation in Japan’s Diet of a human rights caucus, and new initiatives in Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia, to support regional democracy.

And then, he says, there’s the “Milk Tea Alliance.” The online democracy and human rights movement powered by self-described “netizens” from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Thailand and Myanmar is aimed at undercutting authoritarianism and advancing democracy.

The group even has its own flag: a three-striped standard with the brown tones of Thai, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese milk tea.

“This is a movement inspired by the Gen Xers and young activists of Hong Kong who … have said, ‘We will die for democracy,’ and which has taken hold in East Asian societies that look like Hong Kong,” Mr. Green says.

Grassroots engagement

Given the global context, many experts say the Summit for Democracy will only be successful in its aim to “revitalize democracy around the world” if it manages to reach beyond leaders and elites to the populations looking for more responsive governments.

“I do think the summit is an opportunity for leaders to show that democracy can deliver on what people care about,” says Ms. Repucci. “But I think the way we extend it beyond the elites is to make the very firm and material commitments to the civil society that is doing the hard work of fighting for democracy.”

It appears the Biden administration received that memo. In pre-summit briefings and interviews, administration officials have underscored how civil society will be engaged both this week and over the coming “year of action” that the summit will launch.

“We are engaging human rights defenders and highlighting the role of independent media and political activists [as a way to underscore] that what’s most important is to robustly involve civil society,” says a senior administration official involved in developing the summit agenda. Noting that local leaders including mayors have also been involved in the summit process, the official adds, “We really want the summit to be about entire societies.”

Still, for many analysts, the proof will be in the pudding of the coming year. Some worry that more time and energy was spent on the summit guest list – a process that led to global controversy over who’s in and who’s out – than on setting the global stage for quick and meaningful action.

Others caution that some in the world may remain leery of an initiative driven by the U.S., which is seen as experiencing its own democratic backsliding and often acting more in its own self-interest than for a global good.

“My sense is that a global level of discussion around democracy tends to only engage with elites … and rarely reaches the average person, [while] a U.S.-led initiative will lead to a specific engagement with specific international partners,” says Bittu Rajaraman, head of the psychology department at Ashoka University in Haryana, India, and a human rights activist.

The U.S. will have to overcome a sense that a “somewhat hypocritical U.S. is [promoting] a U.S. national agenda and not … issues of global justice,” they add.

Others see a world hungry for a strengthening of the democratic norms Mr. Biden wants to support, but add that the year ahead will tell if the U.S. can turn rhetoric into action.

“There’s certainly a lot for the Biden administration to work with,” Mr. Green says. “But what I see is that they haven’t done that much yet to engage and build on the support for democracy that’s out there.”