Political Critique # 1: The Nature of Democracy

Political Critique # 1: The Nature of Democracy

Partisan elections, those involving the name and money of organized, formal political parties, always bring out the worse and the sullied instincts of citizens. Democracy only works with the ideal of “free and fair elections” as the mechanism to decide the small question of: “Which faction represents the majority interests?” How a democracy such as the United States secures the interests of all rests on a shrewd, hard arithmetic of one person answering this basic political question: “How do I benefit?”

From that simple proposition, the “many” individuals who comprise the “one” electorate (e pluribus unum) starts explaining the reason for organized parties. Regardless of the changes in society and technologies that progress the complexity of life, all politics start with a “party of one.” One person answering “How do I benefit?”on behalf of all the obligations and responsibilities under her or him, hastens the crowd instinct to find others of similar, collective interests.

Democracy, throughout history, looms as the graceful angel of more stable and regulated relationships between people in a world of persistent chaos and turmoil, its history always in flux between peace and war, conflict or forbearance. Democracy allows a periodic choice for a government of a majority to build legacies. It also provides opportunity for a loyal, legal minority to exercise voice and dissent, with a chance to form future majorities.

Democracy's mechanism, with all of its errors, flaws and mistakes, gives people who have it, preserve it, and exercise it, the confidence to abide differing policies better than other systems of government, whether monarchy, tyranny, or oligarchy.

As for the BIG question of politics, democracy balances in a prudent manner the primary function of all politics: “Who gets what, when, where, and how much of it?” In politics, kings or congresses will create reasons as to “why” someones get “it.” Therefore, when citizens ask, “How do I benefit?”, to define the terms, politics in the most natural form becomes the art of managing “political-economy,” or alternatively “rights to property.” Democracy moderates, peacefully, the struggle over gains or losses of property in human relationships. Parties organize strength for that struggle, and not always to the common benefit of any party of one.