Short essays written for the university course Political Philosophy and Democracy by Daniël
On democracy
Democracy is an interesting concept, having existed for centuries since the direct democracy in ancient Athens, now worldwide being a form of governance – nevertheless it seems most problematic to define this term (Dunn, 2005: 13-21). Looking from the perspective of the history and theory of modern democracy, I come to the following definition of democracy: a hard to define term that is related to a political system with values such as liberty and equality, including checks and balances in the rule by or for people, either directly but more likely indirectly through an elected representative government, reaching decisions based on some common good in accordance to a constitution and as seemingly directed by a majority.
To start with, democracy literally means rule by the people, and even though it can be either directly or indirectly, it is hard to conclude whether in reality it is actually by or for the people, since not literally anyone can participate, for example in terms of age (Schumpeter, 2003: 243). Nowadays most democratic countries have a representative democracy, which is the reason why my definition of modern democracy focuses more on the indirect rule. In case of a representative government, the people must be willing to have one, do what is necessary to preserve it and fulfil duties that are imposed by it (Mill, 2001: 48). When the electorate produces a government, usually the only way of controlling it is by reelecting it or not, as in a representative democracy voters usually cannot vote directly on issues (Schumpeter, 2003: 272-282). Hence, once politicians are elected, the voters should understand that politics is not up to them and that they should refrain themselves from it (2003: 295).
Furthermore, in order to have a well-balanced government, power, and especially the supreme one, should be divided. Each branch of power, whether legislative, executive or judicial, should not be able to overthrow another branch (Mill, 2001: 140). This balance of power is one of the democratic aspects stated in a constitution, not necessarily a document, but a concept related to laws and what the best possible state is based on local situations and the character of citizens (Rousseau, 2017: 26-34). Then, decisions are being made to realize a common good, but since this term is quite vague and it is questionable whether all people can agree on it (Schumpeter, 2003: 250), it is stated as “some common good”, as there must be a reason for people to feel the need to have a form of governance and transferring their sovereignty, their supreme governing power, to rulers. Either way, the people that form the rulers should be of high quality and take decisions as far at their knowledge reaches, supported by a bureaucracy that is well-trained and dutiful to fulfil the task of administrating (2003: 290-293). Not only the rulers and bureaucracy should be qualified, also the electorate should have enough education and consequently intelligence to vote on issues, thereby increasing the chance of a good government (Mill, 2001: 23).
Looking at important democratic values, in terms of equality, it does not mean a fully equal distribution of power and wealth, but that no one’s power or wealth exists at the expense of someone else’s (Rousseau, 2017: 26). Besides, irrespective of inequality in strength or intelligence, everyone should have the same legal rights (2017: 11). In addition, all people are born freely and equally and therefore have natural liberty, which turns into civil liberty at the moment people give their power to a ruler, making people unable to be unlimited in getting what they want (2017: 8-10). A problem related to equality is that democracy sometimes is assumed to be the rule of the majority, and in practice it seems like majorities overrule minorities for example while voting, but by proportional representation the power of the majority will be countered as the minority gets a chance of equal representation (Mill, 2001: 89-90). In the end, defining a word like democracy remains problematic despite the number of sources on what it can mean, thus this essay should be seen as an attempt to reconcile different sources in the quest for defining this term.
Democracy and its discontents: two arguments put into perspective
The following consists of two arguments from Goldhammer’s text Democracy and its discontents, related to ideas of a classical author who has written about democracy.
Nowadays democracy in the West is dealing with challenges like populist parties, but you would say that if such party attracts a majority of the voting population, it has the right to rule. Irrespective of which movement or party gets a majority, there is always the danger of the tyranny of the majority, crushing the wishes of minorities (Goldhammer, 2018). Democracy seems to be either equally representation of all people, or representation by a numerical majority, the latter leading to the taken for granted thought that minorities must accept this (Mill, 2003: 84-85). Still, at least there should be a proportional representation, otherwise there is a government of inequality and privilege. Sometimes overall there is a minority representation, in case every constituency only generates a small majority, possibly leaving half of the electors without a say (2003: 86). In that case, it does not give the minority any reason to vote since their total number of votes do not seem to matter and only a false democracy has minorities not adequately being represented (2003: 88).
To make improvements in governance, Thomas Hare proposed a quota of (locally obtained) votes needed to get elected, with votes above the quota being transferred to another candidate on the list. By having this quota, a sufficient large minority is able to have a representative that also represents an equal number of electors compared to any other representative (Mill, 2003: 91). However, in practice this system appears to favor smaller parties rather than larger parties, as the way remaining votes are distributed makes it more efficient for parties to split up instead of obtaining seats by full quotas (Carey, 2016). Still, all parties should understand that in order to keep the system democratic, democracy should be preserved and protected rather than seen as an arena to achieve power (Goldhammer, 2018). In the end, the Hare quota does ensure that minorities are more likely to be represented, which is required to have a real representative democracy (Mill, 2003: 85). Whether a tyranny of majority comes into existence or not, depends on more than a quota.
Furthermore, as democracy deals with challenges, gatekeepers are needed to make sure the government consists of good people and that rules and norms cannot be changed, preferably with unwritten norms supporting the constitution (Goldhammer, 2018). Not only laws, but also mores seem to be vital, “the whole moral and intellectual state of a people” (Tocqueville, 2010: 466-467). Similar laws can be adopted in different regions, but if democracy has infiltrated customs and opinions and hence social life, it is likely that in such region there is actually more of a democratic spirit than in a region where only laws regarding equality have been implemented and people are still discontented (Maletz, 2005; Tocqueville, 2010: 495-497). Besides laws, mores are needed for the maintenance of democratic values, and they are actually essential requirements for having equality, being deeply incorporated in this value. Mores make it almost impossible to destroy equality, especially since equality often proceeded liberty, which resulted in more attachment to it (Tocqueville, 2010: 875-877).
Tocqueville also thinks mores should be regarded as a political science, since there has been an increasing influence of materialism on society and a decreasing influence of the Church. The reason for this is that mores have a bigger impact on behavior as they are linked to beliefs and are not materialistic – so not just made up by people, neither by the ones making the law, nor the ones abiding the law (Maletz, 2005). Materialism is very dangerous, turning people into mindless beings and making them think everything is matter, while religion focuses more on simple and immortal things (Tocqueville, 2010: 958). Even worse, with materialism also comes the rise of industry and commerce, creating a gap between the workers and the exploitive industrial group. To prevent the latter group from turning into an aristocratic group, democratic norms need to be preserved by supplementing laws with mores (2010: 982-985).
Representative democracy looks exhausted, feels exhausted
Representative democracy is worldwide accepted as the main form of democracy, with representatives making collective decisions while being accountable to the people and the people responsive to their representatives (Vandenbussche, 2018). As input there are preferences, as output policies. In this model there are elected officials and citizens have freedoms, access to alternative information and the autonomy to associate (Dahl, 1998: 85-86). For representative democracy to be effective, adults should be able to freely and frequently vote and control the agenda; the focus is mainly on voting for representatives and often not directly on issues or policies (1998: 37-38). Basically, elections give representatives discretionary power to bargain among themselves on how to rule (1998: 83). Consequently, one common problem is that citizens do not feel represented, which undermines this form of governance and makes it look and feel exhausted.
Firstly, one of the most prevalent comments among the people is that they do not trust politicians, often due to corruption and not living up to election promises (Dadgar, 2015). There are other cases related to distrust. At elections, the keystone of representative democracy, less people show up to cast their vote, resulting in the weakening of this institution. Besides, the interest in formal politics and the likeliness of people joining a political party is decreasing. Basically, there is a centuries-old system with institutions that are underused, like elections. It does not mean that democracy itself is on the edge of a cliff, since it brings protection of human rights, freedoms and equality, but that the representative form does not seem to ensure social justice (Dadgar, 2015; Tillie, 2012: 1). For this reason, people speak of a post-democratic time that goes beyond politicians and traditional representative bodies, with citizens taking matters in own hands (Boldvai-Pethes, 2015: 2; Tormey: 2017: 5).
Thus, it seems that citizens are emancipating themselves. Traditionally, representative democracy presupposes common identities, interests and ideologies among the people that make them affiliate with a certain political party or movement (Boldvai-Pethes, 2015: 2). This is not the case anymore as citizens are special individuals with their own voice, broadening the range of preferences shown in elections and leading to the emergence of one-issue and anti-democratic parties (Boldvai-Pethes, 2015: 2-3; Tillie, 2012: 3). There is also a rise of activism in order to fight injustice, with the hopes that it leads to a more direct impact than when injustice has to be countered through elected representatives (Tormey, 2017: 5). Activism is often flexible, spontaneous, easy to participate in, and giving a sense of collaboration among people (Dadgar, 2015). In the end, it could be said that there is a widening gap between aspirations of the people and the capacity of politics to respond to the demands from society (Cardoso, 2016: 37). Activism is one way to fill this gap, further bringing down representative democracy.
In essence, one of the main undermining factors is actually globalization and the declining importance of the nation state, a unit assumed to be the basis of this type of democracy (Tormey, 2017: 4). Globalization has led to states being less of a homogenous entity, since international migration changes the demos (people) in terms of cultural diversity and the degree of social cohesion (Cardoso, 2016: 37; Tillie, 2012: 1; Tormey, 2017: 4). Globalization is not only about the exchange of people, cultures and information, but also national economies becoming internationally connected, less controllable by governments and political power being transferred to supranational organizations (Boldvai-Pethes, 2015: 2; Tillie, 2012: 1). In addition, it is the concept of sovereignty that started with a community that took care of and governed itself, but the before mentioned developments challenge sovereignty and question the ability of a representative democracy to have the people adequately represented (Tormey, 2017: 4). It seems to be taken for granted that this type of democracy is about elections in a nation state, while these developments make this assumption wobble and emphasize that not everyone can be fully represented (Saward, 2008). Of course, representative democracy still exists, but transforming preferences into policies and having freedom, equality and elections is slightly more theoretically the case; in practice, the system deals with exhaustion.
Bibliography
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