Transition to New Normal After Covid-19

Introduction

Democracy, one of the core values of the international system, has evolved with the covid 19 pandemic that emerged right after the rapid development of technology. This evolution of democracy and democratic values has affected the entire international community. However, the economically and socially disadvantaged groups were the most affected by this transformation compared to the others.

It is obvious that democratic values are very valuable internationally and nationally. It is seen that the pandemic does not discriminate between rich and poor, peasant and urban people in terms of democratic values and other socio-economic issues. The only remarkable reason for this process is that children are the least affected by the pandemic and the virus by 2021, regardless of a person’s family or country of citizenship, or regardless of their economic and social status, it can be said that this is the best development in this process where democratic values are questioned. As a matter of fact, it is thought that the young generation after the pandemic will use information systems more actively to the point of participating in the administration, being involved, questioning or criticizing.

In this study, which aims to shed light on the disruptions in the social reflections of democracy as a form of government accepted in the whole international system today, it will be emphasized on what the countries do in the name of democracy within themselves and with international organizations in the international platform. In this context, it will be stated that the importance of international cooperation and the need to support the international community in the covid 19 pandemic process. The World Health Organization (WHO), which is one of the international organizations that are at the forefront of the covid 19 pandemic process, has been subjected to great criticism. The main reason for this can be considered as the failure of politicians in national and international decision-making processes.

The form of government that spreads the fastest in our age and is therefore accepted by societies is democracy. Although the preference rate is high, it is not possible to say that there is still a consensus on what democracy is and what kind of government it should build. The term democracy has a wide meaning and therefore, in order to talk about democracy and its values, first of all, “What is democracy?” The question should be answered. In lexical terms, democracy is defined as “self-government of the people” (Ejder, 1996: 190). Based on this basis, democracy; In the field of politics and social sciences, it is expressed in different discourses such as “the rule of the people by the people”, “the sovereignty belongs to the nation”, “a unique method of making collective binding decisions” (Dahl, 2001; Gözübüyük, 2003: 22; Derdiman, 2016: 91). On the other hand, it is possible to define democracy as a form of government in which the majority has the will to rule. However, democracy is accepted not only as a form of government that determines the political sphere of societies, but also as a way of life that regulates the social sphere. With this state of mind, when it comes to democracy, ideas, ideals, attitudes, different lifestyles and these lifestyles come into play in the society (Berry, 1993: 68). Defining democracy through its appearance in a society is also associated with the fabric of the society in which it rules. Therefore, when we look at societies governed by democracy, it can be seen that in some of them equality, majority or pluralism, in others, public administration and participation come to the fore.

In this respect, the 21st century understanding of democracy has started to emphasize radical democracy and deliberative types of democracy. It can be said that the aim is to find a solution to the administrative dilemmas of liberal representative democracy, which is known as 21st century democracy. With the alternative solutions that are tried to be put forward, reference is made to the areas of democracy that are thought to be inoperable and the value of democracy in social life is emphasized. Especially with the deliberative understanding of democracy that has Habermas’s “communicative action” theory (Habermas, 2001) in its background, it is thought that not only the participation of the people in the administration to determine the political power during the election periods, but also the active role in the administration with different democratic participation tools in the post-election periods will solve the dilemmas of representative democracy. In other words, in the 21st century, “the value of democracy” has come to the fore among the existing constraints, not just representative democracy.