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
Your first question reminds me one old joke: "Kids in school had to wright an essay - Who is the greatest hero of the Soviet Union and why Stalin" ;)
ReplyDeleteI do not think that democracy is good. I absolutely agree with your article, which proves us that democracy is not a great achievement of our culture. I also do not think that this is the only choice. But I don't think that changes can be easily and quickly provided. We live in a time when people are used to have (even fake one) sense of influence. It will not be easy to convince people, after almost everyone has the right to vote, to give up this privilege, even for the better solutions. Freedom is not something which is easy to give up, even if in the long term it would be beneficial.
I have no idea how government will be in 200 years, maybe there won't be any? But I suppose (and hope so) that it will be based people who are perfectly prepared to govern, and are the experts in their respective fields.
Do I care? Yes I do, it would be very selfish not to care.
Thank you Kasia.
ReplyDeleteSo power should be in hands of those who will be educated and prepared to rule. It was my intuition as well but it is somewhat dangerous. How can you educate responsibility, righteousness. What education is able to develop moral and upstanding individual? Home education it is. And to be risen to rule is... monarchy or aristocracy right? :)
I was always sympathetic towards monarchy and I thought I am just a freak but after reading most of D.Weber books I know I am not only the one who doubts in democracy.
And now you.... lovely :)
Some time ago I have read first of David Weber novels about Honor Harrington "Basilisk station". It is s-f book, but I strongly recommend it, also to those of you, who do not read science fiction much, or at all - the way the author is playing with most common modern world's "holy grails" is a state of art for me. He writes about aristocracy/monarchy as well, and he is not totally optimistic about them. I think he has got the point, read it yourself. So - The problem about democracy is... what else? Plato was very critical about democracy, so I started to read what was his alternative, and I tell you what - it is he who was a freak. Really. His alternative was most cracked idea I have ever heard. "Insane" is even better word.
Let me start answering in flipped order from last to one. I do not care about the system I live in unless it significantly affects me. I'm following this rule since I'm paying taxes as well as developing my professional career. I don't care if I live in monarchy, oligarchy or democracy. But your post was mainly about democracy, so I would quote Churchill: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.". To be honest I completly agree with him. Good post.
ReplyDeleteThe current system is not democracy, but politocracy (governments politicians, not the people).
ReplyDeleteThe basis of the existing system is a national contest for a nicer party, and not the actual election. In the poll, people have to determine which group of politicians give the power. People got some pretty pathetic and unreliable packets between which they must choose. No room for maneuver.
Politicians make arrangements for the poll - people have to fulfill a civic duty to choose.
The election campaign is a festival promises and lies. Who best to convince voters to their promises, that takes power. These poor voters guess who less lying and somehow once again believe in something.
I'm not interested in politics but I also agree with the statement of Churchil.
Nice observation Paulina. I started with that. But this is just a first step. And this was my job to criricize and ask questions by the way. :-) :-) I expected you to give me some answers, share some ideas or dreams about better future. Nevertheless thanks fo nice new for me term "politocracy".
ReplyDeleteI think that is one of the best option we have now. In our history we have had the opportunity to test different forms of government and has never been perfect - or at least my state of historical knowledge allows me to draw such a statement. Currently, we have a parliamentary democracy in Poland. The government that rules now, and previous leave much to be desired. In addition to the continuing scandals at the political level sometimes manage to accidentally do something good for the country and its citizens. I think that it is easy to criticize and say that in Poland going wrong. Unfortunately, it is harder to fix it all "evil" that we inherited after years of occupation and communism. Our democracy is relatively young does not prevent her to develop. I see potential in the activities that happened in the last 10 years and I hope that the pace of change in Poland will not be slowed down. I do not know if a different style of government proved to be here in our country where we are now and where we want to strive for. I honestly say that I would not want to test every four years for something new, I think that the country needs stability and peace of mind for the better development and to ensure the financial security of its citizens - the changes are not a bad thing but should be placed in a controlled and deliberate manner.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion democracy is something that is so spread around the world because it is simply what people want to have i.e. they seek to have a say even though they realize that they can change literary nothing but they need to have the feeling of being capable of for example voting during the presidential election. I do not know what it will all look like in 200 years but I believe it will be totally different. People will come up with new ideas that now it is impossible for us to imagine it. Actually, I feel like I should care but I do not care. In 200 years I will not care at all and that is why I do not see the point in caring right now.
ReplyDeleteYes I care a lot and I assume that you wrote this article with the same filling.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember our former Polish president Ignacy Mościcki? He was a scientist, he invented a method for the production of nitrate-based fertilizers, patented it, and invent many other solutions, thanks to that Poland was able to built many factories. When these plants can not take action by the collusion of competing producers Mościcki sent the Minister of Finance, which was Eugeniusz Felicjan Kwiatkowski to manage these plants. With the thought of marketing strategy and carefully new product releases, Poland became a power in this field. These factories are facing still today, now we are calling them group of Azoty, recently it was loudly about them when the public treasury minister in Donald Tusk government asked shareholders not to sell shares to Russian investors.
What happened before second world war in Poland, that people could invent new technologies, politicians were able to quickly and efficiently build a workable country? At that moment we did not have democracy? That democracy was actually very similar to today.
In my view, democracy is a strange vehicle, which is very hard to control, very slowly accelerates, also be slowly inhibited. This comparison is a bit like a description of the supertanker, which many complain, there are many other methods of transport, but oil is transported still by supertanker because of profit. Maybe the same is with democracy, just account of profit and loss decide.
Let's look at runaway democracies such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada (of course I know that UK, Canada and Australia are officially Monarchy and Condominiums but only officially), Germany, and can we imagine that in one or two terms in these countries, the economic and social situation will go much worse?
We have trouble with our Polish democracy (in my opinion) because we electorate hit gas and brake on change so we go in the same average speed :)
I dont think that democracy is a good political system, as I simply cant deal with the fact that some bum has as much to say for example, during the election as me. Whats more, democracy leaves a huge field for manipulations. As most of people are ignorant, they are easily influent by populism. Politicians can resumpt any action against them, and convinced them that this for their own good. Most people dont have any comprehension about politic, so why do they vote? It is pointless, since they can be told anything! they wont even know what it is all about. Regretfully I have to admit that my knowledge in this subject is insuficient to bring some alternative system, although I have some ideas how we can improove democracy, like bring up some qualificstions for voters. Piviliege to voting shouldnt be for everyone.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy is good, because I have a freedom of choice. If I have enough money I can buy whatever I want, but also I have to have enough money to do this. This system is the best, but only for business and development, because they are the consequence of a desire for money and power.
ReplyDeleteHowever, everybody should know that societies are manipulated and spied, as we could see in connection in recent PRISM scandal (very short and very interesting report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video).
Politicians tell us that we are living in democratic countries, the best and the most modern system ever, but after some movies I saw (also this from the link) I can say that I feel everything is going crazy and aim to the image of the world presented by Orwell in the book under the title "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (Big Brother Is Wathing You!). Which I highly recommend. Real Facebook! I care, but what can I do? Vote for who? Fight and cry for what?