Dimitrios P. Panagiotopoulos, Professor of the University of Athens and Supreme Court Lawyer and Counsel of State, participated in the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Legal support of national sovereign interests in cross-border economic relations” which took place in Moscow on November 23, 2023. The conference was held at the initiative of the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL), while other organizations were also co-organizers.
Professor Dimitrios Panagiotopoulos presented the paper entitled: “The World Today, Democracy – Correct side of history: Redefining International Relations” , the summary of which follows.
Abstract
A fundamental question that is still raised today is what Democracy means.
Therefore, even today, the major issue for Democracy is and is called: Institutionalized Authority and Democratic Institutions.
What is the dominant political demand raised today, and what is its content?
a) The modern global capitalist economic system and the individual.
b) The nation-state and the economy with global and regional entities.
c) The structure of political power, democracy, and the ability of people to influence the terms of economic, social, and other aspects of life.
d) The case of Greece in the EU and the Eurozone, after the imposition of the memoranda.
Nowadays, this form of capitalism is presented as globalization, with the freedom of movement for people, goods, services, and capital, as well as financial tools. It represents a period of human and social life enslavement through the acceptance of credit and debt.
Today, in a period of market capitalism, the state is limited to provide the legal framework for the actions of capitalism and assisting in its expansion.
We are facing a new, entirely different world. However, this world is not a creation of human culture and institutions but rather a result of the war we are experiencing, just like the health war based on COVID-19. We are we heading towards a Third World War, a war of economics, energy, and food with profound and lasting consequences. The citizen must judge, control, and decide in accordance with what Aristotle proclaimed and constitutes the essence of true Democracy with their active and effective participation, become the driving force of the entire society. Human beings remain the focus today. Problems of humanity are solved at the common discussion table, not at the tables of the economically powerful. International power has become the “Ego’s Plaything” in the hands of political opportunists within the framework of various ideologies and the evolving authority of the state, revolution, the Tower, bureaucracy, and the oligarchy of markets in the modern world. Therefore, as we emphasized in 2019, it is necessary for the people to unite against this Barbarity, to confront it in a timely manner before it is too late, and to demand that both the perpetrators and the instigators of crimes against humanity should give an account by the international criminal court!
Keywords: Democracy, citizen, democratic Institutions, economy, capitalism, freedom, barbarity
Introduction
A fundamental question that is still raised today is what Democracy means. Is Democracy about human rights, freedom of speech, various types of elections? Are these the consequences of Democracy, and Democracy then is itself the rule of the people, the political power, the authority of the people? Consequently, questions arise immediately regarding what the people are, who belongs to them, and what power means.
