Why I fear “real” democracy

To the Editor ( November 18, 2011 )

Why I fear “real” democracy.

There has been a lot of talk recently about how our representative democracy is not performing well. It is not providing justice, transparency, accountability, fairness; it is not acting according to the will of the majority or in the best interests of its citizens. The government is accused of providing favorable treatment to the rich while ignoring the needs of the poor.

A major call from the Occupy movement is for more democracy. But what exactly do they mean? 1. Reforms to election systems; how we elect our representatives and how often we do it. The current system, first past the post elections once every four years, was sensible when it was installed a hundred years ago, but we can do better.

2. More public involvement; people need to have access to information and a forum to voice their thoughts, more critically they need a mechanism, like a referendum, to clearly express their desire on an issue.

If seriously implemented these measures could be very disruptive. They offer the possibility of a ‘tyranny of the majority’ an idea Tocqueville coined back in the mid 1800s. When the government is required to follow the will of the majority it may undertake actions that wise men consider dangerous. Just look at Greece today; if a referendum was held on the question of imposing more austerity measures, the people would vote ‘no’ and thus doom the nation and all Europe to a fate the experts want to avoid.

But this is still not the ‘real’ democracy that worries me; to understand that, we must look to ancient Rome. The citizens there grumbled often at the actions of their officials, but unlike us civilized folks; they frequently got angry and formed a mob. They expressed popular will in very clear terms. They rampaged, often destroying the homes of the officials they were upset with and lynching them. Mob democracy was ugly and usually unstoppable once it got going.

My point is that we should consider the reasonable demands being made by the peaceful Occupy movement, while we can. Because the items they are upset about are systemic, the problems will not just disappear. I expect they will get worse, because no real solutions are being considered by government. If this peaceful movement ends with out any progress, I fear that mob democracy may be the next flavor of protest.

Make some changes today, avoid revolution tomorrow.