What is Democracy Anyway?

DEMOCRACY is a myth.

“Democracy” seems to be considered to be a good and desirable “thing” — some people even believe that it is a basic human right. Others think of it as being natural. Honestly, the way the media report it, you would imagine that there is only one clearly defined “democracy”.

For goodness sake: people are dying in the fight for democracy — yet it can mean almost anything; it is a myth — and I will prove it!

We need to look at democratic models that presently exist, because that makes the point crystal clear — so I’ll now attempt to describe the democratic political systems of the USA, France and the UK and see if there is any similarity between them.

But, you know, even if I do a bad job of this in the details, the point I am making should still be served — in that none of the three countries are democratic, and that there is no similarity between them either!

The United States of America has a population of 303 million, so it is a big country. It is in fact a collection of “independent states” — hence the name “United States”, and each state has an elected Governor. They have Congress, and while in theory there can be any number of political parties for everything, the reality is that there are just two — Republican and Democratic — and they are very close, politically.

Funnily enough, what-is-now called the Democratic Party initially called itself the Republican Party!

You see, back in the period called the First Party System (1792 to 1824), there were two national parties competing for control of the Presidency, and Congress, “The Federalist Party” (created by Alexander Hamilton) and “The Republican Party” (created by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison).

• In those days, the word “democrat” had bad connotations; no-one wanted to be accused of being a “democrat”! The Republican Party were labelled “Democratic” by the opposition Federalists, with the hope of stigmatising them as purveyors of democracy or mob rule!

From 1824, as the Federalist Party faded away, the Democratic-Republican party split into two. Some formed the modern Democratic Party, and the rest were absorbed by the Whigs. A few years later, enough people wanted the old party back, and so in the mid-1850s, a new Republican party was created — separate from the old Republican (now “Democratic”) party.

So it is clearly the case that there is very little to choose between these political parties — they are extremely close together in terms of what they stand for and what they can deliver.

It is bad enough to have just two parties to choose from, but the USA has even less choice as a result of the closeness of the politics. Can they really call themselves democratic?

The USA is a federal republic — so let’s compare it’s democratic system with another federal republic — France.

France has numerous political parties in which no single party has much chance of gaining power alone. Parties work with each other to form coalition governments. Since the 1980s, France’s government has alternated between two fairly stable coalitions:

• On the left, the coalition led by “The Socialist Party” and with minor members such as “The Communist Party”, “Les Verts” and “The Left Radical Party”;
• On the right is the coalition led by “The Union for a Popular Movement” and its predecessors “The Union for a Presidential Majority” and “The Rally for the Republic”, with the minor partner “The Union for French Democracy”.

The successes of the far-right “National Front Party” show that it is possible for parties outside these coalitions to have some impact.

It may seem that — at the end of the day — France has just two options like the USA, but the differences far outweigh the similarities. The French have extremes of left and right politics tempered by coalitions, compared with the right wing politics of both North American parties.

• To many, this would suggest that France has a better democracy than the USA. The 61 million French have more real choice when casting their vote than the 303 million Americans have.

But can the French really be called democratic?

The United Kingdom is close to France geographically and in population size. The UK is like France in being part of the European Union, but it also heads the British Commonwealth (a throwback to British Imperialism and the days of Empire), and there is a close relationship with the USA, it’s former colony and English-speaking “cousin”. The UK is supposed to be a democracy too.

However, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is anything but democratic! The country is ruled by a monarch, Queen Elizabeth — who is also the head of the Church of England (Anglican). Parliament is divided into two houses, the lower house of Commons (with 646 elected MPs), and the higher chamber, The House of Lords.

The House of Lords is filled with people who have not been voted for, indeed there are 26 archbishops and bishops of the Church of England! There are 92 hereditary peers, and over 700 peers in total — and everything done by the House of Commons’ elected members has to be passed by the unelected peers and bishops — and then approved by the Queen (on the advice of her unelected privy council).

Northern Ireland and Wales are not even countries in their own right –Northern Ireland is a territory, and Wales is a principality — and in fact the country is formally known as “England and Wales”. Scotland is a country and the other half of the UK — the other kingdom.

• Indeed, in Scotland, the monarch is Queen Elizabeth the first, elsewhere she is known as Queen Elizabeth the second.

Scotland has a devolved government that is made up of 73 constituency MSPs and 56 Regional MSPs, 7 for each of the 8 regions in a form of proportional representation that gives everyone two votes. This results in a coalition government. Northern Ireland has a different form of proportional representation. There is also a Welsh assembly. There remain many anomalies like The Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, The Channel Islands, The Virgin islands and so forth. The UK has MANY SYSTEMS of government under one roof — and has “democratic” participation in Europe too!

• When the UK had Hong Kong, Chris Patten was the last Governor — and this was not democratic; he ruled the territory — they did not have the vote, and they even had the death penalty!

The British have loads of political parties, the main four being “The Conservative & Unionist Party”, “The New Labour Party”, “The Liberal Democratic party” and “The Scottish Nationalist Party”.

In the past, the Tories and the Whigs were close (and upper class), then there was more radical change when the parties evolved into the radicals — the Liberals and Conservative & Unionists. The biggest change — and widest choice being post war when the Labour Party offered socialism (a new idea) — and the UK swung between far left and far right, between (old) Labour and Conservative & Unionist. Today, however, many people see little real difference between New Labour and the Conservative & Unionist, and in almost every chamber, the balance of power lies with the Liberal Democrats.

So the UK, France and the USA are all supposed to be democratic countries. Indeed they will fight wars as allies under the banner of bringing democracy to countries — yet they do not seem to have very much in common.

The 303 million Americans get a single vote and a choice between two parties that are almost identically right-wing.

The French have more radical left-wing and right-wing politics, and more parties to choose from, but wind up with one of two diluted coalition governments.

The Brits have more representation than any other country — see my earlier article: “Why Politicians are Not Good for Us” (Thursday, 12 April 2007) — and yet the final say is by the unelected, be it the Lords, the bishops, the privy council, the monarch, the civil service. The UK is a blend of Church and State, and a mish-mash of styles of government, most of which has nothing to do with voters!

• I personally cannot see much commonality between these three great democracies, and I wonder what democracy will be in place in Iraq and Afghanistan!

It amazes me that some people really believe that we have a democracy and demand that everyone participate in elections in order “to have a voice” — yet these are the same people who sign petitions and go on protest marches in order to get their voices heard!

The fact is that we elect people into public office — but instead of representing our best interests, they represent the party line. That is not democratic, surely!

Through vote-rigging and gerrymandering,the fact is that most people do not vote for the winner of elections. Most people did not vote for George Bush, and most people did not vote for Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher.

You can add it up any way you like — take all those who didn’t vote, add the votes for other parties and compare with the total for the winner — or take each constituency… let’s say you had ten constituencies, and your party won by one vote in six of them, then the difference between your winning party and the loser is just six votes in potentially thousands — is that democratic? Let’s say that in each of the four constituencies that your party lost, the difference was two votes — this tots up like this: your party got plus six and minus eight, meaning that the loser actually polled two more votes than your winning party! You may argue with statistics, but you cannot argue with simple arithmetic!

This may suggest that some form of proportional representation is the answer — but there are so many kinds to choose from — and anyway, they nearly always result in a coalition that delivers compromise and makes people frustrated.

Take France, where coalitions are the norm — they are always going on strike, protesting and even rioting to get their voices heard!

There certainly seems to be a lack of democracy in these three long-standing and powerful democratic countries!

• It is perfectly clear that democracy doesn’t exist — and indeed that it cannot exist. It makes no sense — and I would go as far as to suggest that democracy is an abnormal and unnatural idea that goes against nature and human nature!

Let’s face it, we cannot all be Einsteins. Natural law shows that only a few will be clever, rich, beautiful, successful, and so forth. Democracy suggests that we all have equal rights, equal abilities and equal opportunities, when we don’t. It is a sad fact, but the majority of people are ugly, poor and stupid — and that is not something that is fit to rule.

So it is a myth — and it is meant to be a myth. The whole idea is to let all of us idiots think we have some control, some part to play, involvement and participation.

• THAT is what democracy is. A con trick.

Having said that, and in conclusion, I would have to say that I am glad that democracy cannot exist, because I don’t want mob-rule, committee decisions, compromise, lowest common denominator results. I prefer to leave things in the capable hands of a few experts and specialists.

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