The Crisis of Decency in World Politics

Decency has reemerged as a critical feature of civic identity and the struggle to restore democracy and equality. Yet reclaiming decency will require not only renewed trust in the rules, norms, and values of democratic institutions but also a deeper understanding of its decline and crisis in global politics. The crisis in this respect needs to be understood in terms of the collective failure to address the root causes of violence, or the systemic violations of basic decency. The chapter argues that this underlying threat to basic decency reflects the increasingly fragile consensus regarding the meaning and application of decency in global politics. Its primary aim therefore is to show how the crisis of decency grew out of ideological divisions and the false efforts to exploit it for political and economic purposes, efforts that include the championing of personal responsibility and the avid promotion of traditional norms that have negatively impacted human rights protections. In tracing the meaning of the conservative, liberal, and basic strands of decency, the chapter shows how the tensions among these strands help us to understand today’s critical challenges to global peace and justice, including right-wing authoritarian populism and Covid-19.