The Fall of the Berlin Wall – A Triumph for Democracy?

By Jessica Newman

Today, Nov. 9, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event many deem to be the ultimate triumph of democracy, like Ross Douthat of the New York Times. In fact, media outlets all over the world celebrated the anniversary today as an event that brought “democracy” to the Eastern bloc.

But what you won’t see in even the token liberal media like the New York Times or National Public Radio is an analysis of what “democracy” actually meant to the countries on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall. The fall of communism in these nations translated to a prime opportunity for American corporations to come in and privatize everything they could, from the labor market to the previously public utilities system to natural resources. For the citizens of the countries of the former Eastern bloc, democratization brought with it what Michael J. Jordan of the Christian Science Monitor calls a series of “negative consequences”, in his article about the nostalgia for communism in these countries.

“Each positive development of “democracy” ushered in negative consequences: Free-market competition brought soaring prices and joblessness; free elections brought extremist parties; free press brought incitement; free movement brought cross-border crime and westward ‘brain drain.’”

In a perfect world, with a mass media that isn’t under corporate control and searches for the true story, maybe we would have seen a different type of story surrounding the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one with a little less celebration and a lot more reality.