The problem with democracies is that they’re based on the naive and erroneous assumption that people voting for representatives will elect people who’ll represent them. In other words, democracies were intended to be democratic, but never designed to be. They were intended to derive power from citizens, but never designed to allow people to work together to influence government.
A democracy is a form of government that gets its power from its citizens. America’s founders called its form of representative democracy a “Republic.” In the beginning, when representatives tried to be representative, it sort of worked, but it never worked well.
Because it worked poorly, a huge political system evolved in which other players compete to control the government. Meanwhile, a culture evolved with myths that say a citizen’s main responsibility is to vote. While voting is a democratic action, it has become part of our very non-democratic system. Other myths ensure people support the dysfunctional status quo in other ways.
Meanwhile, political science studies our current systems and ignores the fundamental questions:
What foundation does a representative democracy need in order to work well?
How could this foundation arise?
Political science has answers to the first question, but they’re very poor answers. Instead of grappling with the question, they look at what seems to make the system work less poorly, such as free and fair elections, strong institutions, a free press, an independent judiciary, a constitution, competent candidates, and a choice of parties. People who want to improve politics then work on these instead of helping create the needed foundation.
While I’ve written more about this on PeopleCount.org, it’s almost pointless to read about the details. Almost everyone thinks they know that really:
Politics is hopeless
Politics is corrupt
Politics needs some law(s) to be passed in order to work
“Our” party needs a big win
We need a whole new set of representatives
Representative democracy can’t work. A Ruler or Oligarchy is needed
The system works well enough
Some combination of the above
These are all mistaken. While some reasoning can be created to support any of these, none are a solution.
Our political system was never designed to work. Our WHOLE political system has evolved to compensate for the lack of a system that allows representative democracy to work well. Many political reform bills would help, but we haven’t been able to pass a single one. So the answer is not to throw out our system or build a new one, since that would be even harder than passing a political reform bill. Nor is the answer to have a “constitutional convention.”
While a doable answer isn’t that complicated, please be patient and first see that none the answers currently known in America’s culture will work. They’re all part of the dysfunctional status quo.
The Problem with Democracy
The problem with democracies is that they’re based on the naive and erroneous assumption that people voting for representatives will elect people who’ll represent them. In other words, democracies were intended to be democratic, but never designed to be. They were intended to derive power from citizens, but never designed to allow people to work together to influence government.
A democracy is a form of government that gets its power from its citizens. America’s founders called its form of representative democracy a “Republic.” In the beginning, when representatives tried to be representative, it sort of worked, but it never worked well.
Because it worked poorly, a huge political system evolved in which other players compete to control the government. Meanwhile, a culture evolved with myths that say a citizen’s main responsibility is to vote. While voting is a democratic action, it has become part of our very non-democratic system. Other myths ensure people support the dysfunctional status quo in other ways.
Meanwhile, political science studies our current systems and ignores the fundamental questions:
What foundation does a representative democracy need in order to work well?
How could this foundation arise?
Political science has answers to the first question, but they’re very poor answers. Instead of grappling with the question, they look at what seems to make the system work less poorly, such as free and fair elections, strong institutions, a free press, an independent judiciary, a constitution, competent candidates, and a choice of parties. People who want to improve politics then work on these instead of helping create the needed foundation.
While I’ve written more about this on PeopleCount.org, it’s almost pointless to read about the details. Almost everyone thinks they know that really:
Politics is hopeless
Politics is corrupt
Politics needs some law(s) to be passed in order to work
“Our” party needs a big win
We need a whole new set of representatives
Representative democracy can’t work. A Ruler or Oligarchy is needed
The system works well enough
Some combination of the above
These are all mistaken. While some reasoning can be created to support any of these, none are a solution.
Our political system was never designed to work. Our WHOLE political system has evolved to compensate for the lack of a system that allows representative democracy to work well. Many political reform bills would help, but we haven’t been able to pass a single one. So the answer is not to throw out our system or build a new one, since that would be even harder than passing a political reform bill. Nor is the answer to have a “constitutional convention.”
While a doable answer isn’t that complicated, please be patient and first see that none the answers currently known in America’s culture will work. They’re all part of the dysfunctional status quo.