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Democracy - A Work in Progress: An Irreverent Exercise in Political Thought
Democracy - A Work in Progress: An Irreverent Exercise in Political Thought
Democracy - A Work in Progress: An Irreverent Exercise in Political Thought
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Democracy - A Work in Progress: An Irreverent Exercise in Political Thought

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"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those that have been tried before." - Winston Churchill.

So how should mankind organise itself to ensure a civilised society?

In this personal, and sometimes challenging, work the author argues that an idealised form of political government has been the goal of mankind since Plato himself. But political thinking has overwhelmingly been a theoretical exercise detached from reality. Little consideration was given to the fact that it is humans - who do not behave as rationally as political theories are bound to assume - who must implement these theories. Flawed humans who are driven by the forces of prejudice, feelings, emotions, etc. These immutable and distinctive characteristics of the imperfect human ensure that democracy has been impossible to achieve.

Democracy will never be perfect. One can only hope for small, incremental improvements. Any attempt to force radical changes is doomed to failure.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherImprint Academic
Release dateFeb 11, 2020
ISBN9781788360180
Democracy - A Work in Progress: An Irreverent Exercise in Political Thought

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    Democracy - A Work in Progress - Ernest Lamers

    DEMOCRACY — A WORK IN PROGRESS

    AN IRREVERENT EXERCISE IN POLITICAL THOUGHT

    Ernest Lamers

    SOCIETAS

    essays in political

    & cultural criticism

    imprint-academic.com

    Copyright © Ernest Lamers, 2019

    The moral rights of the author have been asserted. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism and discussion.

    2020 digital version converted and distributed by

    Andrews UK Limited

    www.andrewsuk.com

    Published in the UK by

    Imprint Academic Ltd., PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK

    Jacket illustration: Philipp Foltz (1853) Pericles Funeral Oration, by courtesy of Stiftung Maximilianeum, München.

    For if truth be at all within reach of human capacity, ’tis certain it must lie very deep and abstruse; and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous.

    —David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

    Preface

    In the eyes of the many, democracy has an aura of near sanctity. Government by the people, what could be of greater moral value than allowing people the freedom, the right to decide their own political fate.

    Almost universally, democracy is seen as an, or even THE, ideal. It has become the standard of political legitimacy, based on a principle that is clear and simple. But the simplicity ends with that principle, as it has given rise to an uninterrupted stream of interpretations, definitions, political theories and philosophies—all pretending to catch its essence but with little agreement on what a political regime should entail to be labelled democratic.

    At this point I cannot resist quoting that sharp observer of political life—I mean, of course, Sir Winston Churchill—who famously said, and I give you the complete quote: Many forms of government have been tried before, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. Nobody pretends democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those that have been tried from time to time.[1]

    What I find remarkable is that Sir Winston Churchill refrains from defining democracy as an ideal, let alone THE ideal. But there seems to be a slight disappointment between the lines, unconsciously perhaps: is this the best we could come up with after hundreds of years of wrestling with the issue of what the best form of government should be?

    It wasn’t for a lack of trying though. Political theorists and philosophers have since time immemorial devoted great energy to developing systems of government to meet the highest standards. But this perennial debate had one particular feature that was—and still is—practically common to all political thought. Beginning with Plato and continuing through the centuries to modern times, theories have been overwhelmingly normative, i.e. on what-ought-to-be instead of what can realistically be done to achieve good governance. To coin and expression, I would call such theorizing as suffering from an ought symdrome.

    Thinking about the res publica, and about democracy in particular, should be firmly grounded in the terra firma of (political) reality, or lack relevance. The deep-seated weak–ness of most theories or philosophies is that they ignore what Raymond Aron has called "l’inévitable imperfection de la nature humaine et de ses institutions". The irrationality and imperfection of the human mind cannot simply be swept aside.

    Ought thinking strikes me as comparable to the work of an architect who designs a house, a bridge or whatever without knowledge of the properties of the materials he intends to use. His design may be beautiful, but the structure may collapse at an early stage if he misjudges the strengths and weaknesses of the material.

    And the main material here, in rebus politicis, is Man. Human reality can’t be moulded to suit a particular theory. From the crooked timber of humanity nothing straight can be carved (Kant).

    A second, rather common, peculiarity of most political theorizing is what, in an ugly expression, I would call illusional thinking. It is not just the normative thinking that often leads man astray, but also the confidence, the illusion that ideal solutions can be found.

    The concept of the perfect society is one of the oldest and most deeply pervasive elements in Western thought, says Isaiah Berlin.[2] In his introduction to his classic Four Essays on Liberty, he argues that it is mistaken that this ancient and almost universal belief, on which so much traditional thought and action and philosophical doctrine rests, seems to me invalid, and at times to have led (and still to lead) to absurdities in theory and barbarous consequences in practice.[3] History provide ample proof to Berlin’s thesis.

    It is my intention to illustrate in what follows how man’s imperfection coupled with illusional thinking more often than not leads to less than optimal results.

    The State, as an institution, a structure, might constitute an appropriate starting point for these reflections (Chapter I). The State is the skeleton on which a system of government—any system of government—is grafted. Without a state, no government. And no democracy, of course.

    A next step (Chapter II) takes the argument to Democracy with a, perhaps biased, focus on its shortcomings, followed by a discourse (Chapter III) on the Political Arena, the place where the action is and where the political battles are fought.

    Democracy, as a human institution, will never attain perfection. In the Conclusion, I venture to make a few suggestions on what could possibly mitigate some of the weaknesses.

    1 Speech in the House of Commons, November 1917

    2 Isaiah Berlin, Against the Current (1979), edited by Henry Hardy, London: Pimlico (1997), p. 120.

    3 Oxford University Press (1969), 1988, pp. lv–lvi.

    The State

    - 1 -

    If the state did not exist, would it be necessary to invent it?[1] A somewhat surprising question perhaps, raised by Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick who was not above throwing the occasional stone in a quiet pond. It is, in fact, the opening sentence of his 1974 classic Anarchy, State and Utopia. For good measure he added on the next page: The fundamental question of political philosophy, one that precedes questions about how the state should be organized, is whether there should be a state at all.[2]

    A fundamental question indeed that has preoccupied philosophers since Plato. Thomas Hobbes, who preceded Nozick by

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