More than 1.5 billion ballots were cast in elections in 73 countries in 2024. If the upshot of that global democracy “supercycle” can be captured in a single comment, it is this: “When you are in [power],” Pelonthle Ditshotlo, a voter in Botswana told The Africa Report, “we need to know that you listen to us, you are with us.”
A year that started with concerns about whether democracy was losing ground to more repressive forms of governance has instead revealed a different mood – not for less democracy, but for democracy that is more effective and accountable. Voters tossed out more incumbents than ever before. Dictatorships fell. A new generation of leaders emerged.
The result may be a global turn toward more humility in governing. In South Africa and India, powerful political parties were forced into ruling coalitions. “What this election has made plain is that the people of South Africa expect their leaders to work together to meet their needs,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said after his ruling party, the African National Congress, lost its singular hold on power in June after 30 years.
In neighboring Botswana, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said, “We got it wrong [and] I will respectfully step aside,” after voters ended his party’s 58-year monopoly on power.
“The reality is that in a democracy, the people have the final say,” said Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s new president, in his inaugural address in June. “I will strive to prove myself as someone in whom you can trust and count on, by acting justly, showing mercy, and being humble, and by treating our people as family.”
Even in countries where democracy is a fragile aspiration, leaders have felt a need to soften their hard lines. Upon winning the presidency in Iran in June, Masoud Pezeshkian spoke from the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran. Although he was there to “renew his loyalty” to the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he nonetheless promised voters, “I will listen to your voices.”
Humble governing may be a key to rebuilding broken nations. Local elections in Libya in November marked the first step in a tentative process to unite the North African country after more than a decade of divided rule and conflict. The ballot drew participation from 74% of voters. That prompted the head of the transitional presidential council, Mohammed Menfi, to acknowledge “the importance of resorting to the opinion of the Libyan people” in rebuilding democracy, The Libya Observer reported.
“By promoting a culture of listening at all levels of society, including the government, media, educational institutions, and the citizenry, we can hope to bridge political divides and move towards a more united and harmonious future,” wrote Guaiqiong Li and Rainer Ebert, Africa experts at Yunnan University and Rice University, respectively, in the Cape Argus, a South African newspaper, on Monday.
Dozens of countries will hold elections in 2025. Their voters may note the work already done in renewing democracy through humble listening.
