On the Nature of Democracy

Firstly most so called "Democracies" in the West are not really democracies. Democracy comes from the greek words "Demos" meaning the people and "kratos" meaning power, so its literally the power of the people. In the Ancient Greece in the city of Athens this ideal was put into practice, every weekend, the male citizens(concept of gender equality hadn't been invented yet, sorry ladies) gathered together to discuss and vote on important common issues. This is one of the few times in history when actual democracy has been pra cticed.

What we have today is a perversion of this fine institution called "Representative or Parlamentarian Democracy", where every now and then we get to select the "best" and "brightest" amongst us to deside for everyone how our tax euros are spent and what sort of cool new rules the society "needs". Beyond getting to select a small minority who make the decisions, the average citizens have very limited influence on how the government runs the country. The Greeks, smart as they were, also had word for the situation where the few ruled many, oligarchy, comming from the words "oligos" meaning the few and "archo" meaning to rule. The fact that we get to everyonce in a while to select who our oligarchs are doesn't change the nature of the system we live in.

This system is sadly very necessary, largely because not everyone has the time, energy, money or interest, to go into the finer details of governing, like "the allocation of wild life sanctuary improvement funds" or "The revision of the Chapter 3, Sub-section 167, paragph 74 of the National Tranportation Safety Code of 1975". So having someone to think this sort tideous stuff through for us is not necessarilly a bad thing. There are however problems with this system and the main one is the fact that the sole power to decide over the budget and legistlation is with the few, with majority of the citizens having no say what so ever on the process. For our societies to be truly democratic this needs to be changed. Citizen must have the power to propouse and to block legistlation. This could by making a law that allows citizens movements with sufficient support to propose legistlation that the parliament must review and vote on or alternatively a similiar "people's motion" could be used to force a national referendum on any legistlation passed/rebuked by the parliament. Changes to the Constitution would require a referendum automatically.

The Second problem that "Representative Democracy" has, is the fact that the relationship between the people and their representatives has been perverted. Currently the relationship is a relationship between rulers and the ruled. The rulers are superbly gracious when they listen to petitions of the ruled, which can always be ignored, unless ofcourse its one of those times when the oligarchs get elected. This is twisted relationship has its roots in those barbaric times when we didn't get that occasional chance to select our oligarchs and removing one involved a great deal of bloodshed.

What the relationship should be is that of an employer and employee. We are infact hiring them to make decision for us, so that we can continue with doing something productive with our lives, like keeping the economy that feeds, cloths and houses us, running or devoting ourselves to arts and sciences to improve the lives of all of us, instead of dealing with the revisions of the Transport Safety Code. We are the boss and they are employees. As good bosses we are ever vigilant for mistakes interveen when things look like they are going wrong. This is how we should view the relationship between the parliament and the people.

Thirdly a good democracy isn't afraid of conflict. Ideally a democracy is explosive, a situation where different viewpoints colide, heated arguments arrize, profanities get shouted at the other party, and from this chaotic mess finally a fairly voted decision is made. A democracy where dissent and opposing viewpoints don't exist is just a bunch sheep walking to the same tune, sheep that can easily be lead to slaughter. Which leads us to our next topic individual liberties.

To democracy the freedom of the individual is absolutely vital. This is to counterbalance and prevent the "Dictatorship of the Majority". All humans are born free, its not something that is given to us by God or by some text of law, its the fundamental essence of being human, its the natural state of man. Only because we are herd animals does this freedom need to be limited. Every human has the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness, in a way of their own choosing, without being interferred by the government or any individual, unless absolutely necessary to protect the rights and liberties of others. Laws and government are only necessary because we are not yet mature enough to use our freedom without harming others, they are therefore a sad necessity, not something to be proud of, even if it they been based on some form of democracy.