We live in a democratic
country, amongst other democratic countries, in the world where democracy
is regarded as a society's supreme
achievement. But is it really? Do we have the best government system ever and the
best that we could possibly have?
Do you know democracy's past? Of
course you do! Everybody does. It was born in ancient Greece amongst beautiful
hills, vineyards. Philosophers sat on shady benches dressed in snow-white
tunics. The world was a calm and beautiful place, people were wise and
reasonable and ... that is total rubbish! Reality has never resembled a fairy
tale like that. The truth is... rarely poor and never simple (O. Wilde).
Everybody knows how a great
step forward from the preceding and
surrounding tyrannies democracy was, but do we know about its infancy?
It was not easy at all, filled with numerous falls and fails. Moreover, the
sharpest ancient minds were not supporting democracy as much as we like to
think they were. Do you know Aristotle's classification of government types?
I do not know what you think about Aristotle's typology but looks like it describes perfectly our everyday experience with democracy, doesn’t it? Majority rules on the behalf of majority. Sounds right? So think again. Politeia is much better - in politeia majority rules on the behalf of everyone. But there is a tiny problem here. So far - after more than two thousand years -no-one has ever seen anything called 'Politeia'. There is no empirical evidence it even exists.
Another interesting ancient
idea about democracy are Plato's Five Regimes. This describes how the best
models of government tend to degrade to
the worst. And democracy is... next-to-last. Tyranny is only one step ahead.
Government type degradation by Plato
I wonder
how the above list would look if Plato had been born into a slave family,
instead of one of the richest noble families in Athens 428BC. As a matter of
fact democracy had many critics in Ancient times - and many problems. Here are some
interesting facts:
-
Only about 20% of adult men after military training had a privilege of citizenship and was able to participate in the elections (no children, women, slaves and freed slaves)
- One of the biggest problems were Demagogues - wandering philosophers and teachers of rhetoric to aristocrats. They taught how to speak in public, influence others and ... win votes and elections.
- Ostracism - banishment from the city, was developed as a punishment for those who endangered democracy. One of the first banned citizens was Aristides...regarded as one of the most noble, righteous and just men in Athens, ...he just happened to have a different opinion about the naval policy to the current leaders.
After the
ancient period democracy was abandoned and forgotten for many centuries. By the
world that is... In Poland we had
democracy even in Middle Ages during Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (We were
only a little bit less advanced than the Ancient Greeks - we had 10% instead of 20% of the population allowed to vote. That
is a pretty decent result compared to surrounding countries and the majority
of "the most experienced
democracies" in modern Times)
One of most spectacular failures of democracy was the 1933 elections
in Germany. One name - "Hitler" tells why. And it proves Plato over
2000 years ago was right. Tyranny is just one step away.
New ones:
Idiocracy
Everyone know how normal
(Gaussian) distribution looks like. Responsibility and wisdom seem to
distribute the same way in the population. Here is my impression of this
phenomenon.
Looks like Winston Churchill
was feeling much same way:
Mediocracy
The media is the 4th power. No one
denies it. We know that freedom of speech is essential. We all believe free
journalism is sine qua non of democratic freedom. But... we do not vote for
media moguls. Well, we do with our
money. But one can hardly call it direct democracy.
They definitely have their
own sympathies and they make own political choices. Are we sure it has no influence
on what we can hear and see?
Questions
1. Why do
you think democracy is our best and only choice?
2. What
will the best government style look like in 200 years?
3. Do you
care?
Picture source:
1. http://www.enriquedans.com/2009/08/la-web-social-como-escaparate-profesional.html
2. http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=1882
3. http://www.zazzle.com/winston_churchill_democracy_quote_print-228289436322090088
4. http://zoonek2.free.fr/UNIX/48_R/07.html
5. http://resting-applebananapear.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
