Is it important to live in a democracy?

Abraham Lincoln- Government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Rejecting this conventional definition, democracy in my view is a wretched faith in collective wisdom of individual ignorance. And the parliamentary system is simply a disguised face of totalitarianism as government move forward by counting heads instead of crushing it. However the grounded principle remains same- minor heads are ignored not because of being wrong, but because of being a minority. Democracy is systems that thrives amid the tyranny of majority and systematically marginalize the minors.

Let’s view the real face of democracy in allegorical microcosm of three peopled village. X and Y collective vote retired life for themselves and working life for Z, enslaving him to fulfil their basic needs. So as per majority-made system, Z has no control over his life, his freedom and property. Z’s (one third) only duty until next election would be to serve the interest of X and Y (two-third majority). The context and consequence would be same even if we make three as thirty million and replace village with a Nation. It means that democracy privilege one to do anything as long as his group is bigger than others. We don’t need such democracy where rights of many citizens can be subjected to auction in vote.

Democracy is not for everyone because it requires people who are well-aware of political system inside country. The factual information regarding political scenario cannot be acquired from school curriculum or media outlets. Any individual would need wide knowledge to understand the “politics game” and one must jump on stadium or take some part in the workings of the system. One must possess intense willingness to learn and analytically perceive different sides of the politics. But unfortunately, the pendulum of contemporary citizens’ willingness is more tilted to know about the next version of iPhone than politics.

Jason Brennan, political philosopher from Georgetown University published a controversial book in 2016 entitled “Against Democracy”. He argued that democracy is overrated — that isn’t necessarily best than other systems of government and it doesn’t ensure more equitable outcomes. Going with Brennan’s, today’s democratic society lacks political knowledge, ability to be impartial, have no interest to discuss with actual politicians, their perspective is shaped by biased media outlets and they are not familiar to real political field. Under democracy, such doomed situation endows citizens with many rights and very little responsibility to protect democracy. Here, citizens in democratic nation demands a lot from the government and do nothing except gullible voting, that too with compulsion. If we see the ongoing trend, voting behaviour of public are based on more visible but less substantial focuses such as scandals and personality of candidates rather than policies forwarded. In such circumstance how can we cliché on the importance of democratic system

Winston Churchill’s quote clearly reflected what it means to have a good democracy ‘The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter’. Democracy is essentially about crowds and majority. Therefore if crowds are ignorant the democracy tends to produce dreadful consequences. This system can easily lead to a situation what is termed as “tyranny of majority”. Usually democracy consider that when mass votes, their responsibility is done. They are not held accountable for choosing wrong candidates. And their own democratic choice will invite doomed fortune for entire nation.

Fundamentally, as democracy is based on the decisions made by the majority, the minorities remain vulnerable. The contemporary example can be: in 2009 the Swiss declared by referendum that minarets are forbidden, where 57.51% votes decide the religious interest of 42.49% voters. Similarly in case of Brexit, 7.4 million people vote for Brexit vs 6.1 million people tried to stop the happening. Let’s not judge these cases but still the fact is that majority can be wrong. Populism can never outweigh perfect. Democracy is no solution. It’s rational absurdity to equate democracy with freedom because majority commanding the rest hardly define freedom in any meaningful sense. As a proven failure, though democracy didn’t directly elect Hitler but he reach on power through democratic unfolding.

Democratic government are always prone to falling down due to political clatters which ultimately put entire nation into helpless situation. Change of leader could result in change of policies, marking discontinuity, confusion and settlement problem. It’s usually tough to implement any project plan in democracy due to all the personal political interests of the politicians. During time of crisis also the democratic government cannot make quick decisions and it’s very difficult even in case of correcting wrong laws. Moreover democracy lacks strong judicial system because the punishment agreed to criminal never correspondence with crime committed because human rights and humanitarian laws are overtly emphasised.

Democratic governments always live in fear of losing positions and mostly act to please selected voters group. Sometime sustainable decisions are overrode for short-term benefits just for the sake of impressing ignorant voting population. In democracy, vote bank politics and appeasement of certain segments would never let the system to act for common good of society. Too much emphasis on citizens will certainly invite problems as each has different interest that would clash to become conflict. Satisfying one may mean dissatisfying the other. In such a case, a leader seeking seat will please the group most likely to vote him even though it may be a wrong decision. People are often unaware regarding long-term good for their future. If you ask someone who earn average bucks or in Nepal if you ask people like drivers, vendors etc, they will be glad if prices of all goods falls to minimum. For them the long term economic vision matters nothing because they are not concerned about inflation, deflation, and foreign exchange or GDP growth rate. In practice, the policies that appease the masses are often economically destructive.

I believe democracy as the riddle of 1 kg cotton and iron where people’s consciences are counted not weighted. Democracy inshort- is a gang rape in action- Million voters forcing thousands to accept their choice. So I think we don’t need such flawed system to govern us.