Events
& Issues
New Delhi, 28 November 2018
Perils of Democracy
FUNDAMENTAL VALUES ERODED
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Washington-based
watchdog Freedom House recently concluded that “liberal democracy is under
severe threat, even peril, all over the globe,” as its President Michael
Abramowitz said in a briefing announcing the group’s annual “Freedom in the
World” report. The report found that India’s democracy, meanwhile, had remained
stable over the previous year, even as Venezuela sank to “military dictatorship”
and the United States experienced democratic “retreat.”
Democratic values
embedded in liberty, equality and freedom have taken the shape of coercion and
the autonomous individual’s right to resist unjust authority eroded. The role
of government was to be minimal and its legitimacy based on consent and trust;
mutual toleration and pluralism should prevail. But the tragedy is that the
individual has been threatened by the tyranny of the majority – the tension
between majority rights and individualism with liberalism found to be in
conflict with democracy.
Meanwhile,
centralisation of authority has dominated society today where democratic
attitudes, as understood in the professional sense, have been on the wane. The
fate of our rights and the creativity of public spaces is being destroyed by
the institutions that are asserting their dominance. It is well known that
pluralism of democracy cannot be substituted for by populism, majoritarianism
or the lynch mob.
The absence of
decentralisation in the political and economic process has vitiated the
democratic system. But unfortunately there has been a tendency to concentrate
powers in the hands of a few politicians, who are not willing to allow citizen
participation in the planning and governance process. If democracy means just
the right to voting by citizens – most of whom being ignorant about the reason
for their selection of a candidate or the agenda and past performance of the
political party he represents – then, of course, we could continue to boost about it. But this is not at all
tenable and justified.
The voter has become
a denuded entity without any sense of the deeper embeddedness of politics. It
is a well known fact that politics today demands a more inventiveness from the
citizen as a political person. Otherwise, citizenship will disappear into a few
rudimentary roles like voter and consumer and lose the deeper holism of
politics as a process.
The democracy that we
are witnessing today has narrowed down to bullying by the majority without the
creativity by civil society. Without true participation by civil society,
without the public becoming active from the grass-root levels, democracy can be
said to be in real peril. Thus, elections may be considered to be an almost
anti-democratic exercise.
Political activism
and involvement in the decision-making process are vital elements of a thriving
democratic system. Criticism and dissent are vital for democracy to thrive.
However, it is distressing to note that in present day opposition and dissent
are misconstrued. These have lost their polysemy and started marching in
official uniforms enacting official definitions. Though it is well known that
dissent promotes healthy democracy as it keeps alive the power of voicing
alternative possibilities, this is now not appreciated. Moreover, dissent has
been distorted as anti-national.
If secularism and
promotion of free thought and expression are the basics of a plural democratic
society, socio-economic justice is an indispensable requirement. Thus, from the
economic standpoint, one may refer to Prof. Harold Laski whose dictum that
‘without economic equality every democracy is a sham’ may be difficult to
believe in India and in many Third World countries. However, what is true is
that economic equality to the optimum limit possible within the framework of
democracy ought to be achieved as history is littered with examples of
democracy being ruined by the rich and wrecked by the poor.
Glaring disparities
have been found to spawn discontentment and disaffection and in their desperate
bid to secure their wealth and their place in society, the rich have been found
to conspire to establish some form of authoritarian regime, may be a rightist
fascist regime. Such disparities lead to social and economic oppression and may
lead to destruction of democracy and this has possibly what has happened in
India.
As is universally
recognized of all the forms of government humanity has worked so far, democracy
is accepted to be the most civilized as it is based on certain principles and
not on improvised rules. Politicians in democracies not only indulge in
reckless rhetoric but have also been found to brazenly deviate from the norm
and standard of behaviour expected of them. History is replete with examples of
democracies behaving as badly and as outrageously as dictatorships.
It has been found
that obsession with power in democracies is no less than in dictatorships but
since democracies have some built-in accountability mechanism and a method of
smooth changes of government, power can neither be held, exercised and
monopolised for long.
It cannot be denied
that deviation from principles take most regrettable forms even when mature
democracies deal with lesser mortals belonging to backward regions like Asia,
and Africa. This has been the case with India in present times and political
analysts are of the opinion that the basic values of democracy are being
eroded.
The question of
socio-economic justice remains a far cry and the minorities and lower castes
are made to suffer due to flawed policies of the government. The true democratic spirit is missing and the
concentration of power at the top does not allow participation of the people
from the grass-root levels in the development process. In spite of panchayati
raj system being in operation, these bodies have very little say in programmes
to be adopted for the socio-economic development of their areas.
It is indeed
difficult to formulate any theory of how to revitalize democracy in the true
sense at least in this country. The foremost thing that is needed at this
juncture is true cooperative spirit and genuine fellow feeling for our brethren
who languish due to backwardness, poverty and squalor. Ideas and theoretical
propositions are there but the lack of political will is the biggest hurdle.
The question then arises how do we change the mindset of the political
elite?
It must be done by
focussing on development and their will to work towards it. It is generally
agreed that our resources are being virtually looted by the powerful few and
not geared in the right direction. The crux is the lack of accountability and
transparency as also involvement of the masses.
Society has to become
a little more vigilant and exert pressure on the political class through
organised mass movements, thereby creating what Mahatma Gandhi called ashrams of the mind so that no one is
immobile, vulnerable and lacking in spirit. One may have to rise above party
politics and work towards ushering in social change that is sustainable,
judicious and transparent. Unfortunately, we talk about this but the accomplishments
are far from encouraging.
Achieving this may be
quite arduous and would entail an alternative socio-economic path of
development. Pessimists may think that with the society we have and the manner
it has succeeded in crushing opposition of every kind, including the human
spirit, the chances are not very reassuring. But then the human spirit has
always triumphed in spite of heaviest odds and there is no reason why democracy
should not overcome and vanquish the perils that appear to be insurmountable.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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