EFFECTIVENESS OF DEMOCRACY VERSUS DICTATORSHIP

of Univ.Prof. Ihor Zhaloba, historian, President of the Pan-European Union Ukraine With regard to the often hesitant, delayed, indecisive policy of the West in supporting Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war, I often hear the argument that decisions are made slowly in a democracy. This is a special feature of democracy in contrast to dictatorship, where one person makes decisions, whereas in democracy different opinions have to be brought together to reach a consensus. Based on historical experience, I disagree. Chamberlain's policy, for example, was seen as too slow and naive, whereas everything changed under Churchill. Another American example would be Roosevelt, again during the Second World War. But after the start of the Russian war of aggression in 2024, we have already had positive experiences of democratic efficiency. Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel and Josep Borrell have achieved a lot within the EU, despite all the hurdles, that Putin did not expect. Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Czech President Petr Pavel, among others, have demonstrated the West's willingness to help in a similarly positive way by promising to supply artillery ammunition. So, in my opinion, efficiency is not a problem of big democracy, it is a problem of small politicians and the bureaucratisation of democratic institutions. Ukraine is a good example of democratic efficiency. It seems clear that it is a war between democratic Ukraine and despotic Russia. In contrast to the West, Ukraine is able to make quick decisions. The reason is that the complicated democratic system is not yet so deeply rooted in Ukraine. As a simple example, I pointed out during presentations how weapons were freely distributed in Kharkiv or Kiev during the first days of the war. As I was told in the EU countries, this behaviour was illegal and illegal in the EU countries, for which nobody could take responsibility. What we need in Ukraine are courageous, responsible and strong-willed citizens to survive our war situation. We have that. I can confirm this with the example of my comrades from my defence unit. We met on 25 February 2024 and we were inexperienced military civilians at the time. In these almost three years, my comrades have made a military career from infantry soldiers to drone groups with observation drones to combat or kamikaze drones. In my opinion, the spirit that prevails in Ukraine today also existed in Europe. Europe must rediscover this spirit of defence. Democracy must be defended together. Your war is our war. I would like to repeat the old Austrian motto that we can still see on the walls of houses in our western Ukrainian towns: Viribus unitis - with united forces!