Demos (“the people”)
kratos (“strength”)
“Democracy” has had a good week. Far from being disappointing, the UK local election results
have been most informative, and woe betide the politician who ignores the tales
they tell. The French Presidential Election, while entirely different in
character, also carries important messages for democratic politics, even before
the final votes have been cast.
But to get to my point. In both countries,
voters have been exhorted to vote for “representatives” to act on their
behalf in the discharge of public management responsibilities. And in both countries they have demonstrated clear
disaffection with the systems of public management under which they are called
upon to live. And
that is marvellous… Workers do not get the same opportunity to vote on the
performance of their management. We
should study the lessons of these results.
One lesson is that we are approaching the “design
limits” of representative democracy itself.
With higher standards of education and understanding, our children may
prefer to have some direct participation in the management process themselves.
Top-down systems don’t work well any more, anywhere.
Don’t get me wrong: my
democratic commitment is not waning. Responsive systems of representative democracy are essential
for societal well-being, I do not doubt that. But they are
not sufficient.
The next generation may simply be telling us to move on, to explore new
aspects of the strength of the
people, i.e. democracy. Another possibility is that the voters' verdict condemns the design
of the governance system itself, not the choice of
“representatives” at all. The principle
of democratic management is OK (they may be saying) but the actual management
structure is faulty. These are
important challenges, which are not to be ducked.
My point - finally - is this. Compulsory voting, still seriously canvassed in some
quarters, would have suppressed all this. Many of the most valuable lessons of
both these Elections would have been lost.
Compulsory voting is an aberration of democracy, and of democratic
reasoning.
-
PS
One successful share-tipster adopts the practice of absorbing all news as it
happens, from radio and Internet, and then reading the financial Press one
day late - that, he says, has the effect of giving him a 3-D trend
effect. On the same principle, my post-Election analysis will marinate
for a few days - more on Wednesday 8 May Roger WE
Any
thoughts?
Drop me a line
>
Top
Nice intervention, shame
about the intervener…
I
like Hugo Young. I
read everything he writes, in The Guardian.
But this week I bridled at his outright attack on Tony Blair for his
“interventionism” abroad [ See
Taming the Corporations >> My
Welsh socialism >>
