Democracy....

Any democratic rule merely resting on the procedure of elections and winning a comfortable number of seats to form a government may not remain legitimate or provide political stability to a country. The lesson we can learn from the development of democracy in other countries is that there are certain pre-requisites, which are social-structural, institutional and cultural which make consolidation and growth of democracy possible. It is the absence of some of these necessary requirements due to which we see a consistent historical pattern of confrontation among the political forces to make the system collapse. Crisis of democracy more than the individuals, institutional imbalance and the courts exerting their constitutional power.

For brevity of space, let us consider only three most important requirements. First is a democratic leadership that is intellectually rooted in democratic philosophy and embraces its foundational values, norms and attitudes. In countries like ours, there is hardly any meaningful debate or even basic education about what democratic philosophy or its values are. In this philosophy, the right to govern belongs to people which the elected representatives exercise as a matter of delegated trust and only in support of public interest. The understanding of ‘right to rule’ is perverted and limited to seeking votes, getting elected and forming governments. These are basic and procedural matters to transfer right-to-rule from people to the representatives.

Getting elected and assuming public offices imposes obligation of empowering people through education, good governance and economic welfare — the most important part of the social contract. Never in history, have the representative governments  honoured their part of the contract with the spirit and commitment that democratic philosophy would require one to do. The reason is that ruling classes in feudal societies use democratic procedures to legitimise their traditional social power. They feel insecure about the spread of true democracy, as it would empower lower and middle classes that might successfully challenge their power.

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13.10.2017