In an earlier piece I concluded that we do not live in a functional democracy, we merely have a façade of one. The question that then comes to mind is, whether we, as a nation, want a democratic system of government? If we were to do a comprehensive survey of our population, I would expect the result would be an overwhelming – yes, we do. But, as any behavioural scientist will attest, what people say and what they do can be quite the opposite. So, let’s look at our behaviour as regards politics.
That examination requires us to first understand what is required of the population for there to be a functional democracy, and then to consider whether we do what is required of us.
What is required of us includes the following:
- Being informed – This entails having at least a basic understanding of political ideologies, being familiar with major current events, broadening one’s reading and listening to get and consider diverse opinions, knowing the values, the DNA of the various political parties, knowing their policies and considering whether we can trust them to be what they say they are and do what they say they’ll do.
- Participating in politics– This is far more than just casting a vote. It includes participating in political discourse in an open, respectful and peaceful way, considering diverse opinions, joining political parties, joining activist groups, signing petitions, peaceful protesting, writing to local members of parliament, and generally demanding transparency and accountability. It also includes alerting others to the importance of being politically active.
- Being sceptical of what is said by politicians while campaigning – Politicians today and though out the ages while campaigning for election (or re-election) have said whatever they believe will appeal to enough of the electorate for them to be appointed, then after being elected, they do the very opposite. If we, the electorate, allow that behaviour, which we do, why do we delude ourselves that we live in a democratic country? We need to be sceptical of what politicians say while campaigning, and any who break the trust we put in them to do (or not to do) what they said while campaigning, must be ridiculed and turfed out of office at the next election.
- Considering the likely consequences of policies– We should recognise that the consequences of policies, particularly ‘feel good’ policies that appear virtuous, could be the opposite of what they were designed to do. We need to guard against pseudo-intellectual policies.
- Being wary of demogogues – politicians with a view to getting elected, doing things that are popular in the short term but have adverse consequences in the medium to longer term, like offering money or other benefits to those of the population whose votes they court. This is essential for overcoming the fatal flaw in democracy – which is power being vested in the candidate who offers the most handouts, rather than in the most competent candidate, the candidate most likely to increase the nation’s prosperity in the medium to longer term.
- Insisting on the protection of rights, including our right to freedom of speech, association, assembly and religion and insisting government perform its fundamental duty of ensuring our safety and ensuring our property is protected from theft and damage.
- Holding government accountable – Those who break their word, turn a blind eye to corruption, fail to be transparent, fail in their fiscal management, or whose decisions fail to improve our well-being, our prosperity, should be turfed out of office at the first opportunity. This is vital. It is also vital that we resist efforts by government to criminalise whistleblowers, to censor speech or demonise those who challenge their narrative of events or their propaganda.
- And we need to ensure that the three arms of government function as designed – with a judiciary ensuring that the executive arm (public officials) do not abuse or misuse their power, that politicians adhere to their social contract with voters and so do not do or refrain from doing something that is contrary to wishes of the majority or contrary to their express commitments made while campaigning for office. It is also fundamental to democracy that our judiciary is held to account – that it administers justice for everyone, not just for government, the wealthy and big-business, provides an efficient and effective dispute resolution process and designs rules and common laws that are not for the purpose of enriching or protecting members of the legal fraternity, but are in the best interests of society.
Do we as a nation meet those requirements? Absolutely not. A very small portion of our population may do so, but they would be the exception rather than the norm. As a nation we are failing abysmally in ensuring we have a properly functioning democratic system of government. Far too many of us, probably the overwhelming majority of us, limit our participation in politics to voting, and far too many of us vote for a party because we’ve always done so or vote for a candidate because that person ‘has a nice smile’ or is ‘good looking’ or just embrace some or other political slogan or follow the direction of some authoritative figure in our lives.
If we want a functional democracy, we need to change our ways. If we don’t, it is inevitable that we will continue losing faith in our politicians and lose trust in our institutions, and it is inevitable that there will be more corruption in government, more incompetence, more loss of our rights, and we will have much higher inflation and the buying power of our money will drop at a faster rate. We will then get so disillusioned with our government that we will ultimately embrace a dictator. That person may be an honest, trustworthy individual, but who follows? It is again inevitable that we’ll end up with a tyrant and suffer the consequences. Think of the tyrants in history – Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Castro, et al – they didn’t start off as tyrants, they became tyrants. Should we run that risk? I’d rather not. So, I encourage everyone to get politically active.
When we do so, when we get politically active, it is important that we recognise and guard against the inherent flaw in democracy. It is that it doesn’t reward candidates for having the best policies or being more committed to resolving societal problems, it rewards them for being popular, and to be popular they need to tell the electorate what it wants to hear, and what they want to hear is what government will give or do for them. Although it has been well-known for decades that ‘taxing the rich’, raising the minimum wage, setting prices and so on have a detrimental effect on the well-being of the people, those policies win votes.
If we want a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” (Abraham Lincoln) we need to insist on it, and that won’t happen if we are complacent. Rather, complacency is the greatest threat to our liberties, and quality of life. Unless we insist on a functional democracy, we won’t have it and we’ll lose more and more of our liberties – and once lost, it will be wellnigh impossible to get them back. Why – because those in power want more power, that’s just human nature.