All power springs from the people. This axiom accepted, the question follows: how should the people exercise their power? By what means should the Power of the People’s Mind and Will be delivered on the grand stage of public policy making and implementation? Assuming that there is such a Mind and such a Will of the people. But already we have two important assumptions.
Almost all constitutional countries answer these questions with Voting. That is, by counting heads instead of breaking them. Voting itself, we have to recall, is an invention of ancient Kemet and Nubian republics. In order to understand the precariousness of the Democratic process we need to appreciate the humble origins of the process. Now, it seems that Voting has been fully adopted in all civilized states. And in almost all these states, Voting is fundamentally used to express: (1) directly the people’s judgment upon a proposition submitted by Initiative or by Referendum, or (2) is applied to the choice of persons to represent the people in an Assembly, or (3) to empower this Assembly to act on the people’s behalf as officials.
We encounter growing problems and complications with every ensuing iteration of the Vote – from expressing the will, to electing an official and then finally to allowing this official to act on behalf of the voter without necessarily informing the voter each and every time. This resultant evolution of the vote is what has caused the most strife! That is when officials elected or appointed by those elected make decisions on behalf of the Voter.
That is possibly why Voting itself, though everywhere practiced, has nowhere given complete satisfaction. The faults charged on Voting (or the Democratic process) as a method of applying the popular Will to self-government may be summarized as follows.
The purpose of the people cannot be adequately expressed through persons chosen to represent them. Since by nature, these persons may innocently misconceive or dishonestly misrepresent the wishes of the people. There are no instructions that can be given by the people to remove this danger. Moreover, any election of representatives is an imperfect expression of the views of the voters, because it turns largely on the personal merits of the candidates, and not on the doctrines they profess.
Furthermore, there will always be such voters who, having no mind of their own to express, give their vote at the bidding or under the influence of other persons. Some may even be intimidated or bribed to give their vote to a certain cause, although that cause might be inimical to their own interests. Some take no interest in the matter at all and, in default of personal knowledge, merely obey their party organization. Thus, what purports to be the Will of the people is largely a factitious product, not really their Will.
Soon, one can easily observe the evolution of such Power given to officials into something more akin to Totalitarianism. All things, without the necessary input of Ordered Energy, run to inexorable decline. Even ideas. And Democracy as an idea invented in ancient Kemet is one of them. The question follows: Can we devise a system that conserves the Will of the people at every fulcrum, at every turn and at every transition? The law of thermodynamics is irreversible in this instance – all things run to chaos.
Perhaps, this is where Ma’at (Equilibrium) offers some hope. The ancients were smart enough to realize that we cannot perfectly control the Energy of any given (isolated) system – Human Systems, to be exact. It must, they say, sway from Ordered to Chaos and from Chaos to Ordered – if we input “Intelligent” Energy. Government will run amok sometimes, but it is our duty to bring it back in line – back into equilibrium with the Voter. Alas, we need “intelligent” Energy each and every time. That is the fundamental problem.
Sure we need much intelligent energy in the universe. I agree there. But how do we get people to have intelligent energy that is devoted to serving the people’s interests and not greedy energy that is devoted to self-interest?
Democracy has certainly run afoul. I doubt our family would recognize this system we call democracy today. It’s way past due time to reawaken the democracy that we can all be proud to stand by.
This is an intellectually concise article on the meaning of the vote in any given democracy. Yes, we need intelligent energy but… gee, looking at the education our children are getting any days, you wonder if we are about to see the end of democracy at any moment. No one seems to understand the democratic process let alone find ways and means to set up the checks and balances it needs to stay in equilibrium with the Voter.
“Government will run amok sometimes, but it is our duty to bring it back in line – back into equilibrium with the Voter. Alas, we need “intelligent” Energy each and every time.”
Ah that is the million Cedi question. How do we bring government in line with the voter? I do agree that governance swings like a pendulum; from order, to chaos, back to order and so on. All this is directed by the vigilance ,or lack thereof, of the citizens. When the dissatisfaction is great revolutions break out, then when changes are effected there is order until complacency sets in and the government again runs amok
Democracy ignores the rights of individuals. In a democracy an individual is always a minority and so the majority can vote away his or her rights. It is the idea of two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. If there are no unalienable rights democracy becomes tyranny. Without recognizing the fundamental sinfulness of man government will always be sinful. The only controls on government is to create a system where those who government must be subject to their own rulings. That means both limited power in government and forcing politicians to live under their own laws by limiting their terms in power.