Democracy-I

    Democracy is the form of government which is formed by the People, for the People and of the People. Though there are many definitions for ‘Democracy’ propounded by political scientists, this is the famous one said by Abraham Lincoln. There are many political philosophies in the world. As Winsten Churchil said, “Democracy is the lesser evil than any other political philosophies ever said, and it is the worst one”.

Democracy is the method upon which a government can be formed. The mother philosophy of Democracy is Liberalism. Liberalism has off-springs like utilitarian, democracy, Syndicalism etc. (Of course Syndicalism is the hybrid of Socialism and Liberalism).

Origin of Democracy

It is believed that Marsiglio of Padua introduced democracy in 3000 BC. Since then democracy had been practiced in many city states like Sparta, Troy, Padua, Macedonia etc. It worked well in some city states. But democracy was not a continuous form of government in these states. Democracy had been opined very badly by the philosophers of that age. Aristotle includes Democracy in the list of perverted form of governments.

Till the dawn of 20^th Century, democracy is not recognized worldwide as a perfect form. In 1900s Only 19 countries of the world were practicing democracy. At the end of 20^th century it was whooping 125 countries. How this change occurred? ‘Change’ is such a lowly word to describe the democratic revolution in the world. The conversion of world is on the blood spills of the followers of other philosophy. The politics of conversion has micro-macro facets and a long history. (we will analyse the politics in some other essay)

Philosophies of 20^th Century

Communism, after Marx was considered to be the protean solution for the maladies of the mankind. Half of the globe prayed him as god and the rest cursed him as devil. Communism presumed material is fundamental for mankind. It rejected Hegalian ideological theories. Communism tended to unite the have-nots against the haves. It stood for community ownership of means of production. Communism differed fundamentally with Liberalism- the mother of democracy.

Utilitarianism- the other child of Liberalism gained momentum with ideas of Dr. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism stands for maximum happiness for maximum number of people.

Liberalism, the brainchild of classical political scientists like John Locke, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant had been refurbished in twentieth century. Liberalism liberates the citizens of a country from state interference (Laissez Faire) or with minimum interference. It advocates for rights, particularly right to property. Liberalism lacks clear mechanism for the uncontrolled accumulation of wealth by its citizens and protection of the interests of weaker sections. Taxation is a later invented tool which is socialist one within liberalism to control the accumulation of wealth. Taxation cannot be an effective tool in a government because taxation can only truncate the accumulation of wealth, but not distribute it. Liberalism is the philosophy of state of nature. Mighty is the righty.

Leninism and Maoism are only variants of Communism with minor changes. There are few other political philosophies also. Nazism and Facism. They are called political pathologies. They are accidental philosophies arose out of eccentric political leaderships.  

Democracy had been preferred by many states.

What is true democracy?

If implemented, Lincoln’s definition gives the true image of democracy. Democracy as a political philosophy is interpreted in hundreds of ways by hundreds of political leadership. But the true interpretation is only one thing. That is –the ultimate sovereignty vests with the people. The representative democracy is, itself a compromise, considering the population of a country.  Because it is impossible to run a government with all population having the public offices (Magistracies-Aristotle) and it will be chaotic.

With the given compromise, democracy can be a perfect political philosophy with its own tools. Without its tools, practicing democracy is nothing but sheer mockery of it. The tools are

1.    Right to life and personal liberty

2.    Right to expression

3.    Right to adult suffrage

4.    Recall system

5.    Referendums, Plebiscites etc-on government decisions.

6.    Limited terms in magistracies/ public offices.

These are the essential tools for effective functioning of democracy.

You can list the countries with your fingers which incorporate all the fundamental tools of democracy. In this view, Switzerland is the only democratic country in the world.

We will see the Indian context of democracy in our next Essay.