Violence is Lying

a Republican Perspective on Violence and Democracy Today

Abstract

The democracies of the Southern Cone, although to varying degrees, are not exempt from phenomena that affect almost all Western democracies, the vast majority of which could be defined as liberal and representative democracies (in addition to certain qualitative and quantitative differences, both in terms of the length of mandates, the frequency of electoral consultations, and also in terms of the representation of citizens). On the one hand, disaffection and disinterest seem to be characteristic of these South democratic times. On the other hand, violence—in its symbolic, but also its literal meaning—pervades our democracies in electoral processes (expressed violence against those running for office, even leading to murder), in the electoral campaigns themselves (which in many cases are marked by hate speech and, in fewer cases, reflect direct grievances by presidential candidates), and also in our daily lives. Along with these violent phenomena, one of the questions underlying this work—and which, by no means, aims to be fully resolved—is whether the democracies of the Southern Cone are merely victims of an epochal way of life that has taken shape in our societies or whether, on the contrary, the very design of the democracies we have experienced bears at least some responsibility for the violent phenomena that affect them. For reasons of space and proximity, most of the reflections are based on examples of experiences from my country: Uruguay.