Down, Down Democracy!

The arguments against democracy

Many years ago, Winston Churchill opined that “Democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others that have been tried”. As the man who lead the British government and people during the fight against tyranny and fascism, you would expect that he made this statement based on facts and the wisdom of experience. Experience, after all, is the greatest teacher.

Between the times of Churchill and today, we’ve had ample opportunity to see democracy in action, and therefore to judge it on its faults and merits.

With the wisdom of retrospect, we can pose the question again; is democracy the best existing system of government?

To answer this question, it is important to first look back and take mental stock of the struggles that availed us of this opportunity for democracy. Blood was spilt, lives were lost, and wars were fought, some leading to revolutions and the call for emancipation. This was the price paid by our ancestors to afford us the rights that we enjoy today. But the steep price that was paid for the purchase of the right to vote and be voted for should not cast a shadow over our eyes. We should be able to judge the merits of the democratic experiment without sentiments.

The promise of democracy in modern times which was solidified by the blood of the revolutionaries spilled in the American Revolution was meant to make the United States a free and prosperous nation. Beyond that, it was supposed to spread to other parts of the world that were still being held under the wings of tyranny and despotism, liberating them from these and bringing these people to share in the same freedom and prosperity. It was a promise of common freedom and prosperity for mankind.

If democracy is to be judged not by its lofty ideals but by the content of its character, then the answer to the question ‘Is democracy the best existing system of government?’ would be a resounding No.

Despite the promise of common freedom and prosperity, we don’t have to look too far to see that democracy has defaulted on this promissory note. The people of the world in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East have been given a bad check. In these parts of the world, despite the numerous efforts by the countries in the global West to instil democracy by hook or crook, the democratic experiments have largely failed. The evidence for this is in the large number of autocracies, monarchies, military dictatorships, and quasi-democracies that exists in these regions of the world. It follows that the failure of democracy to take a foothold in these areas has left these areas largely bereft of the dividends of democracy.

The failings of democracy are also obvious in Western countries. Countries that we traditionally consider to be bastions of democratic ideals. From the racial struggles of Black Americans which paint the promises of freedom and prosperity with a black brush to catastrophic consequences of democratic elections such as the January 6th capitol debacle, democracy has proven ineffective in delivering on the promises of its ideals. Is democracy really any different if events that happen in autocratic Uganda can also happen within the walls of the symbolic guardian of democracy?

Let us now focus on the idea of democracy itself. Democracy prides itself in its celebration of freedom of ideas. It is in this spirit that we must ask not only what democracy can do for us, but what we can do for her.

Democracy is founded on the idea of equal weight and equal voting. The premise of one man one vote is applaudable, but it does not take into consideration the obvious differences in our cognitive and processing abilities and knowledge. We say that all men are equal before the law, but still, we consider their cognitive abilities and intellect before deciding the extent to hold them legally accountable for certain decisions. To begin the tasking of fixing democracy, we can extend this same prudence to matters of voting, so that the voices of more able cartographers are given more weight over amateur treasure hunters who will lead us to sure doom.

We must not wallow in the comfort of democracy as it is, we must not let this comfort stifle the revolutionary spirit with which our ancestors fought for democracy.

Democracy has failed, but with the same brains with which we conceived of the noble ideals of freedom and prosperity, we can begin to plant the seeds that will lead to the improvement of democracy or ultimately its replacement.