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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand

Volume XVI-2024 (Special Issue)

(2008), political scientist Larry Diamond of Stanford University argues that modern democracy

must be defined by four essential components: 1) the formation and replacement of government
through periodic, free and fair elections; 2) public participation in elections, and national and

local governance; 3) rights, freedoms, and equality for all citizens; and 4) the rule of law applying
to everyone. These four components provide a framework for assessing democratic health.

In terms of electoral democracy, the non-governmental organization, Freedom House lists
several key components: multiparty system, universal adult suffrage, free and fair elections,

the freedom to campaign, a clear separation of powers through legal administrative, and judicial
means, and national election elections that certified public rights and freedoms, along with the

rule of law.
At this point, one must consider the diminishing spirit of democracy as originally envisioned

by thinkers like Aristotle, who emphasized the common good and public happiness, or by
John Locke and Rousseau, who focused on individual rights and freedoms. Some critics argued

that modern democracy has become mechanical–merely a system of institutions without
the deeper, ethical foundations that ensure the well–being of our citizens. Even John Adams,

one of the architects of the US constitutions, recognized this risk. He famously warned
“Remember, democracy never lasts long; it soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never

was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Lord Woodhouselee, a professor at University of Edinburgh, and an expert on Greek and

Roman history, discussed the collapse of democracy in ancient Greece and Rome. He attributed
their failure to a corrupt public that voted for candidates, promising benefits, often funded by

an unchecked treasury, which ultimately led to the rise of dictator ships. This pattern helps
explain why great empires like Greece and Rome lasted only about 200 years. Thomas Carlyle

once remarked that democracy would endure when the vote of Judas was considered as valuable
as the vote of Jesus Christ. While this statement is sarcastic, it also contains a kernel of truth.

The danger of Western democracy lies in the greed of the public, which can lead to
extreme populist systems like those in Venezuela, Argentina, and Peru. Venezuela, for instance,

remains bankrupt and unable to recover. Such extreme populism, marked by corruption,
has also been observed in Chile and Argentina, and it’s beginning to take root in Thailand.

This form of populism turns liberalism into a corrupt monopolistic system, ultimately leading to
political and economic dysfunction. Franklin D Roosevelt warned in a 1938 speech to Congress,

that “the liberty of democracy is at risk when the public tolerate the growth of private power
to the point where it becomes stronger than the state itself.” This, he argued, is essentially

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