The United States Of America

The Constitution And Democracy

Democracy
Democracy. The word democracy has many meanings, but in the modern world its use signifies that the ultimate authority in political affairs rightfully belongs to citizens. There was a time when democrat was a term of abuse, virtually synonymous with mob rule or anarchy. Today democracy's connotations are honorable. This is especially true given the growth of democratic trends in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet empire. Dissidents in these societies evoked democracy as the ideal alternative to a bureaucratic, authoritarian state. A transition to democratic regimes appears to be a dominant political pattern at the end of the 20th century.

Whereas in centuries past there were principled opponents to democratic political rule, such antidemocrats are rarer today in nearly all societies. Democracy's opponents tend to be fundamentalists who favor theocratic regimes or adversaries who find democracy wanting because it seems not to meet certain abstract standards of justice or perfect freedom. Because democracy is so much in favor, even dictators and authoritarians embrace the democratic idiom to characterize their regimes and their actions. As a result, the 20th century has seen a proliferation in the meanings of democracy, though not all evocations of democracy, past or present, are credible. The leaders of the Soviet-dominated authoritarian regimes of Eastern Europe called themselves "worker's republics" and wrapped themselves in the mantle of democracy. The People's Republic of China proclaims itself democratic even as protestors demanding freedom of speech and of the press, hallmarks of democratic polities, are routinely imprisoned. No one, it seems, wants to be called "antidemocratic." In view of the variety of ways in which the term democracy is used, the only way to distinguish between arbitrary definitions and coherent ones is to observe under what circumstances positive or negative judgments are made concerning the absence or presence of democratic institutions. For example, when communists classified the former Soviet Union as a socialist democracy and denied that Spain under the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco had an organic democracy, the reasons listed for denying the democratic nature of the Spanish state would also apply to the communist states these advocates had labeled democratic.
The converse is also true. Defenders of Franco's authoritarian order characterized Spain as a democracy in some sense and scornfully rejected the view that communist countries were democracies in any sense. But the reasons they gave for refusing to describe communist regimes as democratic largely invalidated their ascription of a democratic character to Spain during the years of Franco's reign.

Concept of Democracy
Proceeding in this way, and using the historical context to control specific applications of the term, a central or basic concept of democracy may be presented that will approximate most nonarbitrary uses. Democracy is a form of government in which the major decisions of government -- or the direction of policy behind these decisions -- rests directly or indirectly on the freely given consent of the majority of the adults governed. This makes democracy essentially a political concept even when it is used -- and sometimes misused -- to characterize nonpolitical institutions. Democracy as a political process is obviously a matter of degree -- depending on the areas of society open to political debate and adjudication and the number of adults qualifying as citizens within the political system. The differences between nondemocratic and democratic states are sometimes characterized as being "merely" one of degree. But this rhetorical ploy is used to minimize and confuse the difference between democratic and nondemocratic states.

Freely Given Consent 
It becomes necessary, therefore, to supplement the above definition with a working conception that will enable us to distinguish democratic regimes from others. One such working conception is the view that a democratic government is one in which the minority or its representatives may peacefully become the majority or the representatives of the majority. The presupposition is, of course, that this transition is made possible by, and expresses the freely given consent of, the majority of the adults governed. The implications of the presence of freely given consent call attention to the difference between ancient democracies, which stressed only majority rule as a validating principle, and modern democracies, which since the birth of the American republic have stressed the operating presence of inalienable rights.

Direct and Indirect Democracy
Before developing the implications of this distinction, it is necessary to dissolve certain misconceptions that have often plagued discussions of democracy. The first is the view that the only genuine democracy is “direct” democracy in which all citizens of the community are present and collectively pass on all legislation, as was practiced in ancient Athens or as is the case in a New England town meeting. From this point of view an "indirect" or "representative" democracy is not a democracy but a constitutional republic or commonwealth. This distinction breaks down because, literally construed, there can be no direct democracy if laws are defined not only in terms of their adoption but also in terms of their execution. Delegation of authority is inescapable in any political assemblage unless all citizens are in continuous service at all times, not only legislating but also executing the laws together. The basic question is whether the delegation of authority is reversible -- controlled by those who delegated it.

Democracy versus Republic
The second misconception is the identification of, or confusion between, the terms democracy and republic. Strictly speaking, a republican form of government is one in which the position of the chief titular head of government is not hereditary. A republic can have an undemocratic form of government, whereas a monarchy can be a democracy. There is no necessary connection between the two terms, although particular regimes usually embody a complex mingling of republican and democratic principles.

Majority Rule and Minority Rights
Any community in which a majority of the adult population are slaves cannot be considered democratic. Nonetheless, there is a valid distinction between the kinds of government that existed in antiquity in which the freemen -- however limited in numbers-were the source of ultimate political authority and governments in which the authority of government was vested in a dictator or an absolute monarch. The former were democracies, eventhough the free citizenry or its representatives recognized no limitation on the nature and exercise of their rule and others enjoyed no political rights. The result of elections in the ancient democracies often was the civil equivalent of a military victory, and vae victis ("woe to the vanquished") often described the fate of the defeated. Under such circumstances democratic rule was bloody, disorderly, and frequently a preface to the emergence of a strongman or dictator. Even where power was in the hands of the majority, there was no democracy in the modern sense, for minority rights were not considered. 

With the emergence of a theory of human rights beginning in the 17th century and its explicit development in the writings of Thomas Hobbes and, above all, John Locke, the way was prepared for a conception of democracy in which the principle of majority rule was a necessary but not a sufficient condition. The will of the majority was to enjoy democratic legitimacy only if it was an expression of freely given consent. The specific provisions of the U.S. Bill Of Rights and the unwritten, but not unspoken, assumptions of the British constitution after the Cromwellian revolution expressed the limits set by human rights on the power of ruling majorities, minorities, or monarchs.

Majorities could do everything except deprive minorities of their civil rights, including freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly and the right to a fair trial, the exercise of which might enable the minority to win over the electorate and come to power. Minorities might do everything within the context of these human rights to present their case, but so long as they accepted the principles of democratic organization, they were bound by the outcome of the give and take of free discussion until another opportunity for persuasion might present itself. Since unanimity among human beings about matters of great concern is impossible, the majority principle, insofar as it truly respects human rights, is the only one that makes democracy a viable alternative to tyranny, whether ancient or modern.

Conditions for Democratic Rule 
What are the signs of freely given consent, or under what conditions is it present? Briefly, freely given consent exists when there is no physical coercion or threat of coercion employed against expression of opinion; when there is no arbitrary restriction placed on freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; where there is no monopoly of propaganda by the ruling party; and where there is no institutional control over the instruments or facilities of communication. These are minimal conditions for the existence of freely given consent. In their absence a plebiscite, even if unanimous, is not democratically valid.

These may be considered negative conditions for the presence of democratic rule. But it may be necessary for a government to take positive measures to ensure that different groups in the population have access to the means by which public opinion is swayed. If, for example, an individual or a group had a monopoly of newsprint or television channels and barred those with contrary views from using them, both the spirit and letter of democracy would be violated.

Informed Citizenry 
Philosophers of democracy, especially Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, and John Dewey, have called attention to certain positive conditions the presence of which quickens and strengthens the democratic process. Foremost among these is the availability of education, allowing for an informed and critical awareness of the issues and problems of the times. If the avenues of communication are open, an educated electorate can become aware of the consequences and costs of past policies and of the present alternatives.

If, as the 17th-century philosopher Barukh Spinoza declared, men and women may be enslaved by their ignorance, uninformed freedom of choice may lead to disaster. It is this fear of mass ignorance or the excitability and gullibility of "the herd" that is one root of opposition to democracy. The more informed and better educated the electorate, the healthier the democracy is. This, at least, has been the nearly universal claim of most democratic theorists. But modern means of mass communication and persuasion, especially political advertising, present challenges to this fondly held dictum of democratic faith. How does one distinguish between unacceptable manipulation of the citizenry and wholly legitimate efforts to persuade? There is no consensus on these matters, and the debate promises to grow more intense given the explosion in information technology in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Citizen Participation
A second positive condition for the existence of an effective democracy is the active participation of the citizens in the processes of government. Participation is all the more essential as government grows in size and complexity and as individual citizens may be tempted to succumb to a feeling of ineffectiveness in the face of anonymous forces controlling their destiny. The result may be wide-scale apathy and a decay in democratic vitality, even when democratic forms are preserved. "The food of feeling," observed Mill, "is action. Let a person have nothing to do for his country, and he will not care for it."

It was Dewey and Jane Addams, however, who stressed the importance of participation in the day-to-day political affairs of the street, the borough, the city, the region, the state, and the nation, to a point where the whole concept of democracy acquired a new dimension. By involving the greatest number of citizens in different ways and on different levels in political action, plural centers are developed to counteract the tendency to expansion and centralization of government, and the conditions of "a Great Community" are established. "Democracy," Dewey wrote, "is a name for a free and enriching communion." Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., evoking religious language, described American democracy as an ideal of a "beloved community." However, this generous conception of a participatory democracy can be misunderstood and vulgarized. Some have interpreted it to mean that there is no place for expertise in a democracy, that all citizens are capable of administering all things, and that all opinions not only have a right to be heard but also are entitled to receive equal weight. This denies Jefferson's insistence that one of the fruits of democracy is the emergence of an "aristocracy of virtue and talent."

Delegation of Power
This reinforces the third positive condition for effective democracy. Intelligent delegation of power and responsibility is essential because no community can sit in continuous legislative session, and not everybody cando everything equally well. In addition, it is necessary during periods of crisis to entrust certain institutions and persons with emergency powers to ensure the defense and preservation of the community.

Skepticism and Judgment
The possibility of abuse of the delegation of power both in ordinary and extraordinary times reinforces the fourth positive condition for a healthy democracy. This is an intelligent skepticism concerning claims to absolute truth, the possession of charisma among leaders, or the infallibility of experts. As indispensable as experts are, the assumption of both democratic thought and common sense is that one does not have to be an expert to evaluate the work of experts. One does not have to be a cook to judge the claims of great cooks, a general to know when the war has been won or lost, or a civil servant to discover whether the policy of bureaucracy leads to well-being or woe. In a democracy the citizen is and should be king.

Democratic Way of Life
In recent years the concept of democracy has been expanded so that it may be used both as a political and as an ethical term. Is the expression "the democratic way of life" merely rhetorical? Dewey perhaps did the most to extend the ethical connotations of the term democratic. The justification of the extension is implicit in the actual use of the term. We regard a community as progressively more democratic if the base of its citizenship is expanded from white men of property to all men of property to men and women of property, until finally it is open to all adults regardless of race, gender, religion, or property. Further, even when an action is approved by a democracy we sometimes say that it violates the spirit if not the form of democracy. The only ethical concept of democracy that makes sense of these distinctions is that it is a form of organization in which the institutions of society are geared to manifest an equality of concern and respect for all human beings. No one is to be denied political standing on the grounds of an ascriptive or unchangeable characteristic such as race or gender.

Decision Making
The democratic way of life presupposes another principle that has broad application to nonpolitical as well as political institutions. This is that human beings who are affected by decisions should have some say in influencing those decisions.

The democratic approach, as distinct from the authoritarian approach, invites open expression and discussion of needs, options, and alternatives. But it would be ridiculous to permit small children to make the major decisions in family life or even to decide what should constitute the minimum requirements of an adequate education. There may be a difference in morale between the army of a democratic nation and that of a nondemocratic nation, but to assume that the same mechanisms that operate in the political sphere of a democracy should operate in its military affairs would be folly.

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