Democracy in crisis: Is Direct Democracy the Solution?
Democracy is a big word in today’s world. Pure democracy is basically what most political systems are trying to achieve. It has many types and forms and all of them depend on the status of the particular country. Direct democracy is people voting themselves instead of choosing representatives to vote and decide the issues for them.
Every country’s political system has it is troubling and the question remains, is direct democracy the right thing? In my opinion, it is. There is not a high chance that the decision would ever fit everybody’s opinion, but the goal is for the decisions to be accepted by the majority.
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I would like to start with a definition of what is democracy now.
Democracy, as we know it in the modern world, is based on a peculiar compromise. The word to which we pay such homage means the “rule of the people.” But insofar as we can claim to govern ourselves at all, we do so in a remarkably indirect way. Every few years, the citizens of modern democracies make their way to the polls to cast their votes for a limited set of candidates. Once they have acquitted themselves of this duty, their elected representatives take over. In the daily functioning of democracy, the public is marginal.
Direct democracy was established first in the 5th century BC as a type of government in ancient Greek cities or polis, particularly Athens. It was established by Cleisthenes, an Athenian political leader, and reformer. In Athens, all adult males (it did not matter if poor or rich, everybody had the same vote) were part of a legislature and met 40 times a year to decide important issues. As Greek Statesman Pericles said, “We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business, we say that he has no business here at all.” Later those assemblies were used by many Swiss cities and American colonies and states. Back in ancient Greece, women were not able to vote, own property, or take part in any decision taking assembly. Throughout time, direct democracy has spread across many other nations. During the middle ages, democracy was taken over by feudalism and the “politicians” were royals. Democracy comes back between the 16th and 19th centuries, depending on the place.
Same with every other political and economic system, direct democracy has its advantages and disadvantages. Starting with advantages, the first one is, every single citizen has the same voice and the equality of each vote counts the same. This is a difference from today’s democracy because for example, during the 2016 United States Presidential election, voters from Wyoming had 3.6 times bigger influence than Californians, owing to how the election was structured. The next advantage is, the government cannot hide information from the citizens. The voting process would not be fair if there were hidden information and the government would not want that, because the people make decisions. Today’s representative democracy does not have this advantage, because governments do have secrets. If there were none, there would not have to be a storm raid on Area 51, we would just all have access to it. Another big advantage is that already voted, either decisions or chosen officials, can be recalled at any time by the community. For example, for not being competent or not suitable. The fourth advantage is that with direct democracy, people have a chance to discuss, express their ideas, and debate about an issue or an important decision freely. It helps with seeing issues from a different point of view and deciding clearly. In our community, we often separate into different chambers, and groups depending on our opinion. The last advantage that I would like to mention is that each citizen is responsible for taking action and deciding on life improvement. The fact that people are generally happier in direct democracy is also a nice advantage for society.
Now about disadvantages, first I would like to mention a practical disadvantage and also an issue. The ideal participation is 100% citizens able to vote, but the chance that every citizen would be competent to take part is not that high. People often cannot vote due to traveling. Another practical disadvantage, but not a problem is, that the voting process in direct democracy takes a longer time. Counting all the votes from each citizen takes more time than representatives making decisions in one place and a shorter period. Afterward, that people are not always fully informed. There could be a lack of information that affects genuinely important decisions. A different but also similar weakness is, that people mostly decide based on self-interest. Voting for the best outcome is natural, but it is significant to think about all the factors and views of the point. People often elect to consider more emotional side than the logical side.
Modern democracies are standing behind different ideas than ancient democracies. Nowadays we elect officials and representatives to work in the government and make decisions for us. That form of democracy is called Representative democracy, where the elected officials represent our decisions and us as well.
Nowadays, pure forms of direct democracy are very rare to find now, however, few cantons are applying this form of the political system. Towns in Vermont use town meetings and a similar system is also practiced by some Swiss cantons and also several states in New England
Conclusion about advantages and disadvantages.
Direct democracy gives people the right to choose how and in how the ruled society they are living in. Pure direct democracy is the most useful in local, smaller matters, so everybody can participate and be fully informed. The semi-direct system is beneficial for nations, where direct democracy would be too difficult to keep. The advantages and disadvantages are practical, and every system has them.
When a crisis comes, during direct democracy, voters must be fully informed. There could be an extreme problem if 50% of the people had the different or wrong information. If a crisis would happen in a modern democratic system, I am sure representatives would do what they can, but the decisions would be made by a smaller amount of people. People citizens might not like it, so there could be an even bigger crisis because of demonstrations and manifests.
References
- http://constitutionnet.org/sites/default/files/direct_democracy_0.pdf
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/direct-democracy
- https://www.governmentvs.com/en/history-of-direct-democracy/model-34-
- https://futureofworking.com/6-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-direct-democracy/
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