The Rule of the People – Democracy
Jean-Luc Nancy claims that the term “democracy,” never stops posing difficulties when we try to make sense of it. Concerning some of the challenges we have explored in this course, what reason do you make of ‘democracy’?
The rule of the people, better known as democracy is one of the most widely discussed topics in the world today. The modern times has seen democracy in different forms and is on the way of constant evolution. The rule of the people which tends to incorporate amalgamation of several ideas from different viewpoints tends to use democracy in various forms. In a democratic rule where the power of the people matters, the power is not controlled by a single force and hence outcomes of this system are often unpredictable. Democracy, which promises equality and fairness in the system of the government, also faces difficulties due to uncertainty resulting from the repeated clash of interests and the struggle for the establishment of choices (Miller 1915). This has resulted in the constant evolution of the system from the ancient Greek times to the modern day. The power of the people has constantly been in an effort to maintain a liberal structure to ensure its righteousness and distance itself from authoritarianism (Diamond 2015). In this discussion, several aspects of democracy are to be analyzed from the different viewpoints of the people all over the world. It will be very interesting to notice how democracy has shaped itself to fit in with different regional and socio-economic structures and adapted accordingly. Democracy, in modern times, the challenges it faces and its future in social construction are the prime aspects of this discussion. Lastly, the discussion aims to understand the essence of democracy and how relevant it is to the modern times.
Understanding democracy:
Democracy, in simple words, can be expressed as the rule of the people, where the people of a society or a nation directly share power or elects representatives for a period of time, to run the government. The government is run by a set of rules and guidelines compiled for the better running of the government, known as the constitution (Croly 2017). Evolution from the classical age to the modern times have made democracy an ideal example of a transforming ruling system. The age has always questioned whether democracy is a challenge for a society or a mere tool of an ever-changing set of rules. However, the discussion should focus on the changes that have been radical and transformative impacting the socio-economic-political structure of the entire world. The world has seen a radical change in the rise of democracy in the last century (Gurr, Jaggers and Moore 2017).
Evolution from Ancient Greece to Modern Times
Democracy originated a long time back in classical Greece, where it had been successfully applied, although for a short period of time, before the structure collapsed into gradual authoritarian forms. Democracy, in the later age, took a long time to evolve. The first instance can be seen in the year 1215 when revolutionary England forced the king to limit his powers through the signing of Magna Carta (Hill 2016). The next big revolution came in the eighteenth century in the form of the French Revolution where the common people of France overthrew the existing monarchy to form the first people’s government. Weaknesses of authoritarian forms began to be highlighted worldwide. Similarly, the American Revolution paved the way for the realization of the need for democracy as the only proper system of governance (Washington and Army 2014). Despite these changes, the long-term worldwide application came much later in the twentieth century, after the Second World War, when colonial freedom from the European masters established many new free nations who adopted democracy as the only governing system fit for their socio-economic and political development.
There have been arguments that whether these poor developing countries were eligible for attaining democracy. The development in these countries over the last half of the century has provided that it is not the strength of a country that determines its eligibility for attaining democracy (de Barros Lisboa and Latif, 2013), but a nation can itself strengthen itself by practicing democracy. Derrida suggests that sovereignty and democracy are closely interlinked, although they are politically contrary (Derrida 1997). To understand democracy, it is essential to understanding the proper working of sovereignty. The flaws of sovereignty give rise to the essential democracy.
Types of Democracy:
Democracy operates at various levels, two of the most important being direct democracy and indirect democracy. In a direct democracy, the political system incorporates the participation of the citizens in the decision making process directly, without the help of elected representatives (Fossedal 2018).
Representative democracy has the system of electing representatives from the country’s population by the system of public voting. A special feature of representative democracy is that though the candidates are elected by public voting and represent the people in general, the candidates retain their own judgment and analytics in the decision-making process (Braithwaite 2017). This sometimes draws criticisms as the decision making power can act in contrast to the will of the people they represent.
Direct and Indirect Democracy
Some other types of democracy which exist besides these popular two systems justify the liberalism and openness which is the basis of a democratic government. Constitutional democracy is a special type of democracy practiced most popularly in the United Kingdom (Norton 2015) and some other European and Asian countries, where the representative parliament is chosen by election, who runs the government in the name of the monarch. The role is maintained more as a symbol of sovereignty and unity.
Socialist democracy is a very unique form of democratic structure which holds a very different view of representative democracy in contrast to the conventional theories of democracy. The views are solely based on the left wing political views on the basis of the theories of Karl Marx. The democratic structure defines democratic socialism or the dictatorship of the proletariat (Ambrosio 2016). The example of such a democracy is the Russian democracy. They believe that industrial, economic and political participation, all are the crucial components of a socialist democracy which requires an overall development.
Challenges of Democracy:
Democracy is considered the best system of government in the modern era. However, it has different arguments which pose challenges to its very foundation. According to Derrida, any concept of the study, in this case, democracy, cannot be compartmentalized in a fundamental idea. The very idea of Derridean deconstruction is to highlight the concrete indeterminacy of the theories and ideas and how they play the most important part in the destruction of the idea (Thomson 2005).
Similarly, when the discussion comes to democracy, the Derridean deconstruction analyses it similarly to highlight its self-contradicting ideas and risks, which it cannot deny. To, identify the challenges as mentioned by Jean-Luc Nancy, democracy can be analyzed in two different ways. Firstly, democracy can be rethought in a completely new manner, to create a new version of it, free from flaws or criticism. The second method that can be used is the one suggested by Derrida, that is, to re-analyze the very idea of democracy on the basis of its contradictions and arguments. This helps in the identification of the risk factors, and on the basis of critical analysis and promise a new and refined democracy.
To begin with Derrida’s concept, it is precise to assume that democracy, with its complete potential and possibilities, faces challenges from its own ideas and theories. According to Plato’s ideas, the main pillar of democracy, that is freedom, is one of the most important factors that challenge the authority of democracy (Gourgouris 2014). It is very ambiguous as freedom can be seen from various perspectives and can be interpreted in various forms. The idea of criticism, a very fundamental aspect of freedom, has to be incorporated in democracy. Democracy is the only system of government where one gets the fundamental right to criticize everything, including the idea of democracy (Derrida 1997). This expression, delineates democracy in a new manner, separating Derridean democracy from the present idea of democracy. The Derridean democracy, therefore, self-critique and reasoning are much equipped to deal with the enemies of democracy such as political abuse.
Representative Democracy
Derridean democracy, which incorporates such high values of political critique cannot be confused with the normal idea of democracy. It reminds of the fact, that if the democracy is not met with critique or the freedom of the people, then it ceases to be a democracy, but represents the idea of a liberal democracy. A liberal democracy is the one which meets the requirement of a certain section of the influential population, thus depriving the majority of the free population (Wolff 2013). This idea contradicts the idea of democracy as it disregards equality of every citizen. It abuses the freedom to choose, and freedom to profit from a democratic government’s benefits equally.
Merits and Demerits of Democracy:
The main victory of democracy in the twentieth century is the universal adult franchise. This has ensured the rights of decision making to every adult individual. In the earlier stages of democracy in the USA, the voting rights rested only with the white men. The women, black American and slaves were deprived of the right to decision making. With the advent of the twentieth century and modern revolutions democracy also underwent severe changes. The incorporation of rights for every adult person not only uplifted the structure of democracy to a fairer and transparent process but it also championed the equality quotient on which the foundation of democracy lies. However, apart from the voting rights, women seeking power in a democracy has also been subjugated and abused. Considering women as subordinates to men, they have always been a subject of dominance and their potential rise to power has always hurt the rising male ego. In the present scenario, these scenes have changed too (Perkins 2018). The constant feminist revolutions in favour of democratic equality for positions of power has gifted the world, powerful women leaders who have run the nations successfully. Australia had Julia Gillard, Germany has Angela Markel, and India had Indira Gandhi as the most powerful heads of the state in different times. These powerful women have redefined democracy in their own terms championing women’s rights and equality.
The claims that non-democratic systems are more efficient when it comes to socio-economic growth can be verified with examples from countries such as China and Singapore which have a better economic growth than the other developing nations such as Jamaica or Costa Rica. However, no concrete evidence provides that fact that rapid economic growth can be directly proportional to the complete economic development. The harsher political environment of an authoritarian system hinders the freedom of thinking of the general population in a whole (Boix and Svolik 2013). This leads to a forcible subjugation of human rights resulting in a depressive political scenario and a lesser social growth. The narrow evaluation of the success rate of economic growth shadows the political and civil rights of the citizens. The application of different political views, protests, critical views of government policies provides a friendlier atmosphere for the economic development. These can prove a real difference to the political scenario of the democratic countries.
Different Types of Democracy
Democracy has always come under the critical fire of being influenced by capitalism. The influence of capitalism on the prominent democracies of the world has been the evidence of the argument. While the vices of capitalism come into the discussion, the fact remains undeniable, that without the combination of a capitalist economy it would have been difficult for the developing democracies to flourish and excel. However, with the days passing by capitalism has undergone tremendous transformation and has led to wealth accumulation to a limited population of the society, which has given rise to inequality and brutality as had been dominant during the early ages of the industrial revolution (Enyedi 2016). The disparity of wealth distribution and inequality is the very contrary of a democratic government structure, which leads to power disparity.
Political elitism and lack of education in the backward countries such as certain African and Asian countries has led to political elitism which has led to the active participation in politics to a limited population of the capitalist economy. Unstable governments have led to several military coups in several African countries in the last few decades (Slater and Smith 2016). The democratic structure which promised equality, under the lack of weak and selfish leaders crumbled to the ambition of selfish military leaders, who in the subsequent years formed a complete autocracy behind the democracy. The volatile conditions of several middle African nations and the civil wars are an evidence of the failure of democracy in these countries (Murithi 2015). This does not mean that these countries did not deserve democracy. The Derridean concept recognizes democracy as a tough constitution in itself and has to face constant criticism from its fundamental rules to establish its authenticity.
This type of democratic unstableness is answered by the severe and concrete political structure of socialist democracy. It addresses the very essence of political elitism which limits the power to a limited few who holds the power of money to manipulate and regulate government policies in their favor while limiting the social development to restricted areas, thus destroying the whole purpose of a democratic structure. According to Che Guevara, democracies which are controlled by professional politicians and rich landowners reduce the structure to a political fiction (McCormick and Berger 2017). The belief of a proper social democratic structure lies in the organized body of the working class, which comprises of the entire population, acting without the bindings of personal benefits. It believes in the rise of the proletariat from the working class to the ruling class to achieve ultimate democracy, against universal suffrage to bring a peaceful transformation from a corrupt and selfish structure through political revolution.
Challenges to Democracy
Conclusion:
Democracy, as discussed has a wide range of meanings and theories which has evolved from the ancient Greece to the modern age. The conclusion that can be derived from the discussion is that democracy has been established as the only form of government which is right for the present day scenario. It helps the modern population in exercising their rights of decision making and in turn it is the people who run the government. The leaders are elected by the people and represent their views indirectly while taking decisions about running the country. In addition to this general fact, democracy has several other aspects and like every other theories it has own set of merits and demerits. While the merits of democracy lie in the championing of the equal status of men and women, providing importance to every individual, it has come under serious critical fire on regards of biases. The political scenario of democracy has accused to have been influenced by political biases and financial regulation. The advent of political elitism, which is the result of the influence of the corporate and rich capitalists, has questioned the efficiency of the widely popular democratic structure. The failure to address to the wide demands of the developing population, democracy has been limited to only the benefactor of a limited few. Lack of interest, and political gain for personal interest, has led to the limited development of the infrastructure and popular benefits. This also has the answer in different theories of democracies which limits capitalistic views and focuses on more socialistic views. It can be finally said that the ideas of democracy cannot be limited to the textbook with a concrete set of theories. According to the Derridean concept, the fundamental rules of democracy is in itself a challenge to itself, where to establish itself it has to undergo severe criticism from itself.
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