Professor’s Classroom
Subject: Political Theory
Paper #2
A good question…..some will say nothing and yet others will say everything…..after many years of watching and participating in the political process of this country I have come to believe the latter….I have been a radical that believes that the people are the political power and have been an advocate of participatory democracy for all those years….but yet there will be those that say the our present form of democracy is the best…that representative democracy is the best way for the country to behave…..I will disagree.
Is there a good reason that I feel this way? Yep and a big one……the present system eliminates the people from the process with the exception of elections every so often…all other decisions are made for us…whether we think they are a good idea or not….it is all about what the ruling elites want, not what the people want…..
People are starting to question the validity of the representative democracy for many reason, but the most common are:
1–too much is expected of the process
2–it completely fails to rev the people up or to generate much interest in the process
3–the people gravitate to individuals not issues
4–fails to find solutions to complex problems and issues
Since the days of our Civics classes, which are a thing of the past, we have been taught that the answers to ALL of life’s problems can be fixed by our representatives, whether it be in Washington or at the local level……but there is a bigger truth that is somehow lost in the shuffle and that is that the representative body is too weak to solve the massive problems facing the people…..if an example is needed then just look at the whole recent debate of health reform (at least at the time of this writing)……why would I say this?……the players in the representative game are pre-occupied with the longevity in Washington and everything else is just a bothersome task that has to be attempted……the masses are nothing but a pack that needs to be manipulated….
The representatives seem to be trying less and less to involve the people in the decisions that concern them…..the people are nothing more than a consumer of the political rhetoric that is uttered daily….there is NO more face to face discussion between the pols and the people, instead there is the one way media….that means that the media reports on one aspect and all else matters not……the media has gained so much influence that it leads to a massive manipulation by the elites and because of that the original idea of the Founders is only a vague memory in a historian’s head…..
The Founding Fathers, back in the day, did not want the masses involved in the national discourse….but they thought that a face to face with the reps back home would make the running of the country much easier and more streamline…..originally it probably was, because in the communities everyone knew everyone else…..but today that is NO longer possible….the idea of a face to face debate with the rep is just a pipe dream from the past….
For many many years the representative form of democracy has been failing the people……yet those same people allow it to continue…..why?
The answer is very simple…..Americans allow the rep form of government to continue because they are too passive and badly misinformed…just an example of what I just said…..in a recent survey of self-described Repubs, 63% said that Obama is a socialist….that right there illustrates the completeness of American ignorance…..Americans have a very weak commitment to educate themselves on political matters, they prefer to rely on slogans, sound bites and lies to make the political decsisions….
The champions of Rep dem point to the need for an “educated elite” as the tools of governance…….Rep government is “by the people” but it rests on the wide shoulders of the elite to make it so…..
Is there another way of governance? For me there is….I prefer what is known as participatory democracy, where the decision are made by the people…..but sadly it will NEVER come to fruit for the very reasons I outlined above……why? Well as I see it…the masses, for lack of a better word, are at times too intolerant, nationalistic, anti- intellectual, alienated, hateful and violent….issues that would make good governance a nightmare….
So for now we are saddled with the representative form of democracy…the people trust their reps to govern as they intend, which is naive at best….just look at health reform…the majority wants reform but a few ruling elites have decided that it is not to be….and in turn the people get in line and accept the lies as truth……a pathetic ignorance……
There is so many facets to this debate that it would be virtually impossible to summarize it in a 1000 words or less…..I hope that a little more understanding has been had by my readers……..
Next watch for Part 3 of this series entitled Bureaucracy: Management by paperwork.
Yes. A very good post and a very good summation of the situation and problems…
Whilst it is true that “the masses” can be too emotionally volatile to govern on a day to day basis (and I would include myself in that, although I do try to at least “think things through” – something few politicians seem to do either), the worst thing is, I think, that the ruling elite are setting themselves up as some kind of moral example and judge of the rest of us and that they are neither justified in doing, nor qualified in any way, shape, or form to do! In many instances, they are the worst examples of society, rather than the best.
However, whilst I also agree that participatory democracy is never going to happen, I believe that is simply because that ruling elite we have spoken of have no intention whatsoever of relinquishing the tiniest smidgen of power – indeed, they spend most of their time trying desperately to harden and increase their grip on all of us.
I believe, though, that there IS an alternative, as I’ve said before – and that is a sort of “hybrid”. If the elected ruling elite still ruled as now, but had to seek approval from the people on each individual issue before it could become law then the status quo could ONLY be changed with the approval of everyone. The administration would be required to first present and then approve a bill and THEN they would need to have it ALSO approved afterwards by the people before it could become law. The people could not present a bill for consideration, but they could BLOCK any (or every) bill. The logistics of that are not difficult these days and are becoming simpler all the time.
A “hybrid”? An interesting prospect but just how would that look? To me the elites have the same reason for not wanting mass participation…..wealth…..they fear that the masses will somehow relieve them of it…..that is the way it began and little has changed….
Oh, yes. I agree completely… as I said – it won’t happen because they don’t want it to, but I’m convinced it would work if they were prepared to alloow it. You could introduce it slowly solely on major issues and, as I said once before, people could be automatically entered into a nice big fat prize draw just for voting, which would encourage them to participate.
However, as we’ve both said, it won’t happen because it would reduce the power and influence of many politicians and therefore, ultimately, their opportunity to screw money out of the public.
For instance, if a majority of people don’t want to pay (centrally) for free basic healthcare, then they shouldn’t be forced to, but if a significant majority do want it, then it should become law – IF the current system first decreed it was desirable.
Little would change in the short term, but over time politicians would at the very least stop bothering to produce vast amounts of stupid, flawed, biased and pointless legislation, because the prople would simply reject it.
That’s probably what scares the politicians the most – they probably know in their hearts that the people may be apathetic and even ill-informed, but they’re just not as stupid as politicians take them for.
True that…..and most people would vote with their pocketbooks, not their brains….we could only pray that we would see less misinformation and more substance…to me that is worth more than just about anything…
Sorry I had a brain fart….I see you have a way to accomplish your proposal……would it be every issue or just major legislation?
Just a reminder…next Monday will be the Bureaucracy post…it has been an ulcer maker….lol….but so much crap so little time…lol
Well yes – see above. As to bureaucracy… oh yes – that’s the hardest part of all. 😆
PS: sorry about the typos above and in many of my comments – the brain, bad as it is, just works faster than the fingers 😆
No prob..I understand completely…between mental pause and brain farts I have my share also…..