I OPPOSE (PURE) DEMOCRACY

 

I admire the ancient Greeks and draw wisdom in their view of citizenship- being a member of a polis (city-state) has the common expectation that a citizen is an informed participate in the political life of the polis. This civic engagement was the foundation of their democratic process. Granted those Greeks were not perfect who they allowed to be citizens but at least they possessed the basic concept of civic participation and willing to defend their freedom to do so in a series of land and naval engagements against the Middle Eastern colossus of the day, the Persian Empire.

Nevertheless, I depart from the Greek ideal of democracy for our modern times. Popular assemblies open to all citizens were effective for them in directly electing leaders and judges, setting tax rates, and determining policies such as war and peace. But Greek democracy was also open to manipulation by soaring oratory feeding the people’s fears. As a result, tyrants became powerful and those who were at time in the political minorities could be exiled by their polis or even executed. This is pure democracy at its best and worst.

In our contemporary United States we have several examples of pure democracy- village and town meetings in our New England states, juries of our peers deciding justice in civil and criminal cases, and in a sense, the unicameral legislature of Nebraska. But a the national level pure democracy would be a disaster. Our Founders were wise enough to realize that the rule of the mob (their view of pure democracy) so they created a constitutional republic rather than a democracy. There is a difference between the two and that is why I am a constitutional republican (not the small r.).

Our Federal Constitution skewed towards republicanism in several ways:

·       Enumerated powers for the national government.

·       Power sharing between the national government and states.

·       Checks and balances among the three branches of the national government.

·       Presidents elected by electors and not by popular vote.

·       Senators elected by state legislatures (since amended to popular vote) and one- third elected every two years for six-year terms.

·       Representatives only to live in state they represent and not in district from which elected.

·       Each house of Congress able to determine its own rules (hence the Senate filibuster rule).

·       State legislatures to determine their own election laws.

Therefore, when you hear someone mention democratic ideals, ask him/her what exactly what  do they mean by democracy. And remember the following quote by Edmund Burke, British political theorist and Member of Parliament (mentioned in the movie and musical 1776)- “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."  

Thank you, Edmund Burke and American Founders for insisting upon constitutional republicanism rather by pure democracy for the order of government.