Is Modern Politics Democracy?

The Press are often inclined to talk as if democracy as originally defined is working wonderfully well in modern times, and as if it is self-evident that what we have in the United Kingdom, the USA and many other countries is pure unalloyed democracy. The tragedy of Iraq has been brought about by a naive belief that 'democacy' is working well at home and should therefore be spread around the world. It is fairly obvious that democracy as understood in 2007 is failing us and many other nations too. If for no other reason, the original definition of 'democracy' has very little to with the modern reality of rough-and-tumble politics actually practiced. How has this come about?

The international sphere impinges directly on nations livelihood and economic success. There is so little evidence of democracy in the United Nations, The World Bank, the IMF, global development banks, the WTO or even the EU in Brussels. Decisions in these organisations are decided by representives appointed by governments. Or to be more explicit, by top government leaders who would never consider asking a voter for an opinion. In this way wars are undertaken on the say-so of individual politicians without consultation and famines kill off many in Africa although problems have been identified long ago. Whatever it is, it is not democracy. It is a pity that disastrous decisions are being made by politicians who have scarcely ever left home and have limited knowledge of the world.

Of course, politics has always been the province of the influential and the rich. Your chance of becoming a successful politician is greatly enhanced if you are a lawyer (and they say a teacher) where the gift-of-the-gab is critical. Lawyers are trained to put forward (bad) arguments orally in open court. The UK parliament is such a debating chamber and only those able to debate in public are likely to succeed. Perhaps once an excellent way to ensure we are governed well with transparent arguments made in open forum. Unfortunately, politicians have to be lawyers, who seem to have more regard for the law than the truth, and have become public relations managers for their clients. How can democracy flourish in the old sense of the word.

Voting systems are manipulated by politicians to the extent that the results of elections are by no means clear. In the UK we often have government by a minority who neverthless get more seats in parliament than anyone else. Amusingly machiavellian, but surely it cannot be democracy!

The world of education has changed in the last 50 years. Many of us have university degrees in science, engineering and business,and are quite capable of looking after ourselves. However there is no path in the UK from one profession to another, and many of our experts who one might have thought were needed in this technological age seem unable to move into politics. No wonder many technical decisions fail and billions of pounds are lost when the politicians involved come from a different non-technical world. In fact it seems that many senior politicians have only succeeded by joining a political party at the age of 20! Leave it too long, you are barred from political life for ever.

The world has become globalised - as they say; we live in a global village. The odd thing is that there many hundreds of thousands of administrators and international executives who have lived their lives overseas in many different countries. They know the politics and cultures of the world well. This contrasts greatly with most of our politicians (and civil servants)who have very seldom ever lived overseas and who one suspects are inclined to believe their own propaganda about how terrible foreigners are - except of course one must not discriminate against them - already a contradiction in terms!

Many modern diplomats and ambassadors now have less experience of the world than international business. Even those diplomats with experience of and empathy for the world are hamstrung by the need to get every decision rubber-stamped by their own government, only 5 seconds away by telephone or e-mail. It is clear that the diplomatic world is frozen into immobility most of the time when confronted with difficult decisions. If in doubt, do nothing!

Politics needs money and large amounts of it. Recent reports from the USA suggest that presidential candidates are already collecting a few hundred million dollars - a month! This may be a practical way of succeeding in politics, but it surely is not democracy when so many people are excluded from ever trying.

It may be human nature to compete for positions at the top of society, and we are still very much at the evolutionary stage of being 'red in tooth and claw' as we jockey and fight for status. A few hundred thousand dead in Iraq is just part of the price we pay. Integrity and honesty are not a great help in reaching the top in politics - which of course excludes many of our best people at once! There is already a great contrast between the intelligent and thoughtful people we see on television every day and the shifty, uneducated stare of the average politician trying hard to be economical with the truth.

It would seem we are in a transition stage globally. It is clear that we cannot long endure a situation where ignorant domestic politicians rule the roost while at the same time there are increasingly many well-educated people from all nations, who know the world intimately and yet have little influence on what happens. This situation has no balance and one might predict that major changes will have to take place if we wish to have a world ruled by democracy, especially in the USA, the UK and Europe. We don't have it at the moment!

This all sounds pessimistic! I suppose it is. We are killing people deliberately and by neglect. One way out is to introduce a new political idea - democracy! Perhaps it should be tried one day.