{"id":84624,"date":"2026-07-30T07:12:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-politica-en-un-mon-de-velocitats-incompatibles\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:52:05","slug":"idees-dactualitat-la-politica-en-un-mon-de-velocitats-incompatibles","status":"publish","type":"newspaper","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-politica-en-un-mon-de-velocitats-incompatibles\/","title":{"rendered":"Idees d’actualitat – Politics in a World of Incompatible Speeds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most frequently invoked metaphors to describe our age is that of acceleration. Everything seems to be moving faster: technological innovation, financial markets, the flow of information, armed conflicts, public health crises and the effects of climate change. The expression has become almost a clich\u00e9. Yet it perhaps captures only part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our age is not simply faster. Above all, it is fragmented. The world no longer moves at a single speed. Different processes, actors and institutions operate according to radically different temporal rhythms that frequently come into conflict. And it is this mismatch, rather than acceleration itself, that lies at the heart of one of the great political challenges of the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For much of the second half of the twentieth century, Western democracies were able to govern on the assumption that there was a reasonable degree of alignment between the timescales of politics, the economy and social transformation. Crises demanded responses, but these could be absorbed by institutions designed to deliberate, negotiate and build consensus. Electoral cycles, public policies and major collective projects all shared a broadly compatible time horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That balance has gradually broken down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we inhabit a world of temporalities that are not merely different but often fundamentally incompatible. Algorithms make decisions in nanoseconds; markets react within minutes; a diplomatic crisis can reshape geopolitical balances in a matter of hours; social media can transform a local conversation into a global phenomenon before governments have had time to formulate a response. At the same time, the energy transition, climate adaptation, post-war institutional reconstruction and the transformation of education systems all require decades of sustained political commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no single speed at which the world moves. Politics no longer competes only in the realm of ideas. It competes for time as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past few weeks have provided numerous examples of this tension. The confrontation between the United States and Iran has evolved at a pace that has forced diplomacy to adapt continuously to faits accomplis<\/em>. The war in Gaza has reshaped the parameters of international debate within days, while international legal institutions continue to operate according to much slower timescales. Technological competition between China, the United States and Europe is accelerating decisions on industrial policy and strategic autonomy, even as the regulation of artificial intelligence still requires lengthy negotiation. The relaxation of certain European climate policies reflects immediate economic pressures, while the objectives they are intended to safeguard remain firmly set on a thirty-year horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconciling these different calendars is becoming increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reality compels us to reconsider a fundamental question: what does it mean to govern when time itself has become a source of power?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political theory has traditionally associated power with control over territory, resources, military force or institutions. Yet in the opening decades of the twenty-first century another, less visible but arguably equally decisive, dimension has emerged: the ability to impose one’s own tempo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major digital platforms determine the pace of innovation. Financial markets impose the immediacy of expectations. Social media dictates the rhythm of public debate while drastically reducing the time available for verification, contextualisation and nuance. Armed conflicts force governments and international organisations to respond under relentless pressure. Even extreme weather events can overturn political priorities within days, despite years of careful planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, time ceases to be merely the backdrop against which politics unfolds. It becomes a strategic resource. Those who can accelerate events, dictate deadlines or compel others to react gain a considerable political advantage. The paradox is that democracies cannot\u2014and probably should not\u2014compete in such a race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliamentary deliberation, judicial oversight, interinstitutional negotiation, citizen participation and international cooperation all require time. They are not accidental inefficiencies of the democratic system; they are among its essential conditions. Democracy is not slow because it functions poorly. It is deliberately slower because it incorporates safeguards that other forms of government regard as dispensable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This helps explain one of the deepest tensions of our time. It is increasingly common to hear that institutions are “too late”. But perhaps that is not really the issue. Perhaps they simply arrive when it is compatible with the principles from which they derive their legitimacy. The problem arises when citizens compare the timescale of democracy with that of algorithms, markets or digital communication, as though all were governed by the same logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The danger is obvious. If the legitimacy of government comes to be judged solely by the speed of its decisions, democracies risk embracing standards that favour simplification, the concentration of executive power and the erosion of spaces for deliberation. Speed may thus come to be valued more highly than the quality of decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the alternative is not to celebrate a resigned slowness. Institutions cannot simply defend their procedures while reality evolves at a dramatically different pace. The challenge is more demanding: to preserve the distinctive timescales of democracy while simultaneously developing a far greater capacity for anticipation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This requires a change in perspective. For many years, governance has been concerned primarily with managing crises. Today, it is essential to strengthen our ability to identify trends before they become emergencies. Foresight, strategic intelligence, scientific cooperation and scenario-building are no longer complementary exercises; they have become central instruments of public action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this respect, Europe possesses an asset that is too often overlooked. The European Union has frequently been described as a normative power, capable of setting rules rather than imposing force. In a world of incompatible speeds, this role may acquire renewed significance. Regulation is not merely about imposing limits; it is also about synchronising. It is about creating common frameworks that enable actors operating at different speeds to coordinate their actions, preventing immediacy from systematically overriding every other consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is one of the principal responsibilities of public institutions in the decades ahead. Their task is not to compete to become the fastest, but to ensure that spaces continue to exist where it is still possible to deliberate before deciding, to analyse before reacting, and to plan beyond the next media cycle or electoral contest. Governing the world’s different speeds will require institutions capable not only of responding, but also of anticipating, coordinating and synchronising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, this is also a question about the quality of democracy itself. Governing is not simply about taking the right decisions, nor about taking them quickly. In the end, it may come to mean something quite different from what we once imagined: not accelerating decision-making but reconciling the different temporalities of a society that no longer moves at a single speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photography: Time and its dimensions. Generated with AI.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most frequently invoked metaphors to describe our age is that of acceleration. Everything seems to be moving faster: technological innovation, financial markets, the flow of information, armed conflicts, public health crises and the effects of climate change. The expression has become almost a clich\u00e9. Yet it perhaps captures only part of the problem. Our age is not simply faster. Above all, it is fragmented. The world no longer moves at a single speed. Different processes, actors and institutions operate according to radically different temporal rhythms that frequently come into conflict. And it is this mismatch, rather than\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":84595,"template":"","category_newspaper":[679],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-84624","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-679"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIdees d'actualitat - Politics in a World of Incompatible Speeds – IDEES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-politica-en-un-mon-de-velocitats-incompatibles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Idees d'actualitat - Politics in a World of Incompatible Speeds – IDEES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most frequently invoked metaphors to describe our age is that of acceleration. 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