Democracy- The Rule of the Flawed People

The 15^th of September was International Democracy Day, so we should celebrate, right? “Wooo, yeah! Democracy is so great! I love democracy!” and so on…

Actually, we shouldn’t celebrate because Democracy- that political paradise, which is craved by so many individuals in so many countries, is actually fundamentally flawed. “But democracy gives everybody the right to vote,” you may cry. “It is the fairest system imaginable!” And yes, this is theoretically true as democracy weighs up the views of an entire electorate and draws a response based on the majority’s demands. But this is not just theory… this is reality.

In reality, democracy is the representative system. In other words, the masses vote for individuals to represent them, but do not actually take part in making decisions. The problem with this system is that the representatives will rarely do what is best for the people or the country, but rather they’ll make decisions which keep them in power. The economy may be failing, and the only way to save it is to raise taxes. Mr Representative knows this. But he also knows that increased taxes will upset voters. And he knows that upset voters won’t vote for Mr Representative again. And he knows that Mr Representative will lose his job if the voters don’t vote for him again. So Mr Representative decides not to raise taxes, and the economy continues to suffer.

Humans are fundamentally selfish creatures, and the motivational mechanisms in the brain ensure that an individual will invariably act in their own interest. Even charity is a selfish act, if you think about it. Most people donate money to feel good about themselves. They want to help the charity, of course, but they want to know that they’ve helped. This is not a problem, the charity still gets the money, but it is important to remember that all human instincts point towards selfish behaviour.

The only way to get politicians to act unselfishly is to remove the possibility of getting elected again; if a politician can only stand for one term, let’s say, they will not waste time pandering for further votes. Even this idea is flawed, though. US Presidents cannot stand for three terms in power, so one would assume that they would spend the first term winning over the people in order to get re-elected, and then the second term making tough decisions which may not impress the voters but is actually very good for them. WRONG! Actually, the second term is associated with the idea of a “lame-duck presidency”, whereby Presidents don’t get very much done as they have no motivation; however well they do they are going to lose their job at the end of it, so why bother?

So if the problem with democracy stems from the representatives, then why not cut them out all together? Direct democracy is when the people vote for decisions, rather than representatives to make decisions, through referendums… surely this is the answer? WRONG AGAIN. Two problems exist with direct democracy. First of all, voters have imperfect knowledge. Unlike politicians, who have expertise and access to detailed information when making a decision, the vast majority of the voters do not have this. They are making their decisions blindly, and surely this is not going to yield the best results.

Even if the people did know everything about the decision they are making, the problem of selfishness again rears its ugly head. Every voter is likely to vote in their own best interests, rather than that of the country as a whole. Again using the tax analogy, who’s going to vote for tax rises? It may lead to economic prosperity in the long term, but the reward system in the human brain struggles to understand this; short term rewards are always more appealing than long term ones. Therefore, the taxes will never rise and the economy may never improve.

Democracy is Greek for “the rule of the people”; and the rule of the people relies on its people.This is the flaw of all democracy: it relies upon humans, and humans are fundamentally flawed. Communism fails because there are always some HUMANS who will always be unhappy with equality; autocracy fails because the HUMANS in power invariably begin to act in their own interests; anarchism fails because some HUMANS will always take advantage of the lawlessness of society.

We are flawed. There’s no way to deny it. And consequently, any political system is going to be flawed too, here we are back to the original question, should we celebrate International Democracy Day? Despite what has been said above, the answer is yes.Yes we should. Democracy has its problems, but it’s the best we can hope for. It is the fairest system we can conceivably achieve. Its problems are clear, but so are its benefits: free speech, self-expression, and working together to achieve a greater purpose.

So next year, on the 15^th of September, go put on a little hat and get out the balloons in honour of democracy. Yes, it’s not perfect, but neither’s your mother. If you still celebrate her birthday, then democracy’s day deserves celebrating as well.

HUGH DAVIES

YJAW-Coordinator

England