‘A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly would help ensure that global decisions are informed not only by governments, but also by elected representatives who are accountable to their constituents. This would be an important step toward a more people-centred, and legitimate UN’.

Andisiwe Kumbaca, Member of the National Assembly, South Africa

The ‘blue-nami’ which swept the Democrats to impressive majorities in both Congress and the Senate was undoubtedly based on economic despair, resulting in a sea change in the populist wave that elected Trump in 2024. As Jim Messina, former campaign manager for Barack Obama, said on the BBC’s Americast programme, the combination of the war with Iran and the imposition of tariffs has been devastating for the cost of living. He drew attention to the fact that the Democrats had very sensibly remained focused on this issue, avoiding dilution of their message and concentrating on the high cost of living issues which have caused so much anger and stress across the United States.

Trump's brand of autocracy has been shown to be wholly incompatible with democracy. Populism cannot provide a steady basis for support unless it is grounded in logic: people can now see that ‘Make America Great Again’ was never anything other than ‘Make Trump Great’.

But Trump’s intense national focus is also wholly out of alignment with how the world now works, and with the global nature of its challenges. It's not just a matter of communication, travel, technology and trade. Climate change is a global scourge requiring global solutions, the polarisation of wealth can only be resolved by global participation for all, and we can no longer view violent conflict as the way to resolve geo-political differences. The intense national focus has even extended to issues of faith — the attempt to promote ‘Christian Nationalism’ denies the very essence of the Christian faith, that it is for all of humanity, not just America.     

The sea change which we have witnessed is particularly evident amongst young voters, where support for the Democrats rose by 48 points. Undoubtedly, their actions over the next two years will be critical for turning that support into Presidential success in 2028, but if they can stay focused on sorting out the woes of the economy, that should keep them on the right track.

However, we should also hope that they will start to explore how to move towards a new global democratic order. At present such initiatives are being taken by China, whose autocracy is currently maintaining a steady hand without any exposure to populist swings: but that's certainly not democratic.

Meanwhile, the United Nations, which should be the platform for a new democratic world order, has been locked into inaction by the tight control granted to its Security Council. There are no United Nations representatives directly elected by their populations: delegates, ambassadors and permanent representatives are all appointed by their respective national governments, typically by the head of state, head of government or foreign minister.

Proposals have been made periodically for the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) which would be directly elected by the world's populations, but no such body currently exists. Of course, under Trump's autocratic approach such a development would be almost impossible to achieve; but, now that the Democrats are in control in both Houses, perhaps such an initiative could start to build momentum.

It's critically important that we move towards democratic participation in global governance, and not only in order to tackle climate change.

In many of our commentaries we have set out the immense scale of wealth disparities across the world and, until participation in ownership can introduce a sense of responsibility, these disparities will continue to stand in the way of both peaceful coexistence and a stable environment. An election day survey in the United States found that 57% consider that Artificial Intelligence would do more to hurt society than to benefit it — only 24% said that it would help society. Share Alliance’s proposal for a global process of ‘Stock for Data & Creativity’ would provide a constructive solution, benefitting both populations and tech giants.

Meanwhile inter-generational rebalancing would also bring new hope to young people, recognising and responding to that 48-point swing away from the Republican Party in the mid-terms and finally allowing the human life cycle to contribute to a more equitable approach to global economics. Share Alliance’s home page sets out these challenges and summarises the progress that is being made in both these respects.

Is it too much to hope that U.S. Democrats will embrace the opportunity to move towards a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, working with other democratic nations across the world in order to achieve a really positive alternative to the autocratic approach of China? And perhaps by so doing, we will gradually encourage even China and Russia to take steps towards genuine democracy.

The other real opportunity is to let the UNPA grow as a long-term counterbalance to the short-termism which is so prevalent in individual democratic nations. Both the United States and the United Kingdom experience the challenge of this Achilles Heel of democracy, as we commented on 16th December 2024.

The next two years will, of course, be critical in terms of maintaining a sensible balance between Trump and the new Democrat control of both Houses. However, if Trump wants to secure a legacy which is not mired in war, corruption and economic failure, he will need to work creatively with the new Congress and Senate. Let's hope common sense will prevail. in

Gavin Oldham OBE

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