Dignity demands democracy (and democracy demands dignity)

Midterm elections are upon us and today Dignity Now! launches a month-long series on dignity and democracy.

The midterms will be the 62nd national elections held in countries worldwide in 2026. In all, 2026 will see 70 countries holding national elections, with at least 1.203 billion registered voters.[1] And while we are seeing a 20-year decline in freedom globally – and the United States has lost more freedoms in the last 20 years than almost any other country on earth[2] -- there are still signs of democracy’s resilience and endurance. Because people want democracy.

What fuels that resilience and endurance? Human dignity.

Dignity is the sense of worth that lives inside each one of us. It is what makes us believe that we are entitled to be treated with respect for our humanity and that we deserve to live in a society where justice is the norm. It is what makes us want to be included in society and have our voices heard.

Because we humans have a sense of our own dignity and of every other person’s equal dignity and worth, we demand justice when we are diminished, excluded or silenced. We insist on our rights to live with dignity.

Democracy is the only form of government that fully respects human dignity because it is the only form of government that assumes the inherent dignity of all people and that depends on it.

That dignity is inherent means that it is something that attaches to us as human beings Some people are born in poverty, others are born with organs or limbs missing or unhealthy, but all of us are born with equal dignity and worth.[3]

Democracy assumes inherent dignity of every person.

Democracy assumes the dignity of all people because democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln famously said.[4] It is summed up in the opening words of the Constitution’s preamble, “We the People” – a phrase that is adopted and adapted in many of the world’s constitutions and in many international instruments including the Charter of the United Nations.[5]

These phrases are colloquial ways of vesting sovereign power (the power of the state to govern) not in the government itself, but in the people ourselves. It is we the people who hold sovereign power in the United States and who delegate it to our representatives.  The power that those “in power” have is the power that we, the people, have entrusted them with; we give them our sovereign power to use on our behalf, for our benefit, and only for so long as we want them to have it. Those in power do not hold that power because they are special but because we have chosen them to hold our power for a time, for a particular purpose. That is why they are the servants of the people, doing public service.

Democracy is the only form of government that assumes the people have inherent worth and agency, are capable of holding sovereign power, and have the wisdom to entrust it to those who will represent them.

Democracy depends on the dignity of each person to make decisions for themselves about who will hold their sovereign power.

Elections are our chance to use our dignity and agency and will to decide whether we want to continue entrusting the same people with our sovereign power, or whether we want to give that power to others. Every 2 years, we decide who should hold the legislative power on our behalf and every 4 years, we decide who should hold the executive power for us.

Democracy does not grant people sovereign power; it merely recognizes it, and then depends on it. It depends on people exercising their sovereign power by voting.

If those elections are interrupted or compromised in any way, then our dignity is compromised. And we can’t allow that.

Watch our animated video: Voting is an act of dignity

[1] According to Wikipedia and Chatgpt.

[2] “Among countries rated Free, the United States, Bulgaria, and Italy have experienced the year’s largest declines [in 2025]. In the United States, an escalation in both legislative dysfunction and executive dominance, growing pressure on people’s ability to engage in free expression, and the new administration’s moves to undermine anticorruption safeguards all contributed to the negative score change. The United States lost 3 points on the report’s 100-point scale, bringing its net decline since 2005 to 12 points, more than any other country rated Free during the same period except for Nauru and Bulgaria.” https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2026/growing-shadow-autocracy#democracy-and-freedom-will-endure

[3] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

[4] Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863. https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

[5] While the United States Constitution was the first to use this phrase to locate the sovereign power in the people, other national constitutions have followed suit. According to Chatgpt, 29 current constitutions use the exact phrase “we the people” while an additional 35 or more use a variation such as “we the citizens” or ““We, the sovereign Filipino people…” or “We, the unified people of Uzbekistan…”. The Charter of the United Nations opens with: “We the Peoples of the United Nations….”