La Edad Democrática

The Contemporary Age has already ended. What happened to us is no longer contemporary, regardless of whether it ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the attack on the Twin Towers, the appearance of the internet or artificial intelligence, the economic crisis of 2008, the Covid pandemic -19, the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or, simply, with the three zeros of the year 2000. Of the two hundred years that it has lasted, the most important contribution that humanity has received is democracy. José María Michavila invites us to reflect on the changes that this political system has brought about at all levels and proposes that what we have known until now as the Contemporary Age be called the Democratic Age. Democracy, says Michavila, has been the great generator of freedom, development and entrepreneurship. Nations, their strength and their blunders, ideologies, political parties for better and for worse or international organizations are born with it, and thanks to it advances arise that make us live longer and better. His pencil has drawn the map of those who have grown in well-being and those who have been left behind. His ethical strength has led the fight for human rights, equality between men and women, the abolition of slavery, the overcoming of violence, the protection of the environment and the eradication of misery. This is not a chronology of what happened in that period of time, but a look at how, where, when and why humanity has changed during those two centuries and what we can expect from this new time.