Democracy as a word goes back to the ancient Greek democracy from the glory days of the city of Athens. However, this form of democracy no longer has much to do with our current form, and I want to argue that our form of democracy can learn from this old form; a small adjustment can make our form of democracy resistant to the forces that might one day bring it down.
Democracy
For many, democracy is synonymous with Western values and norms. For the word, however, we go back to a period in Greek, or rather Athenian, history. The word democracy also originated from this Greek. Demos (people) krateo (rule) therefore means no more than popular rule. This implies that the people have a say in a democracy.
Athenian democracy
How was that ancient Greek democracy that we so fondly refer to to explain our contemporary system of government organized? Was this at all similar to our current democracy? The answer is that this is nothing like what we now understand by democracy. An old Athenian city dweller would not even want to compare our form of democracy with his own direct democracy. The ancient Athenian democracy was based on the principle of direct plebiscite. The people, minus the women, slaves, children and non-Athenians, came together to decide together what the direction of the city would be. Everyone had the right to speak, but of course not everyone could speak equally well. To this end, a number of professional speakers were active, who, for a fee, could express a certain opinion with such eloquence that a normal citizen could not compete with it. However, these professional speakers were not unknown faces to the Athenians; they were seen to represent opposing opinions every so often. For example, a professional speaker could be against a war one day, only to be in favor of it the next; depending on the person who paid him to express an opinion.
Differences between democracies
Isn’t this Athenian democracy perhaps just more primitive than ours? After all, we vote for parties with certain opinions, so that they can arrange these for us. They do this as a profession, so this would imply that these people are better at running a country than the ancient Athenians, who had no idea about running a country.
To answer this, it is necessary to know whether our representatives indeed have the right knowledge and skills to lead a country; Based on experience we can answer this fairly affirmatively. Most representatives have gained the right experiences in municipalities and provinces; one can disagree about certain views, but not about the experience gained.
Are the representatives together also competent to lead a country? Here you can be answered in the negative. Is a compromise between different parties ideal for the country? Are schemes intended to stimulate investments effective if they are withdrawn at the next elections? These are just some of the questions that arise about the adequacy of our current democracy. However, the most important one is quickly forgotten, a question that gnaws at the root of our current system.
Driving without a driver’s license
Political parties must gather votes to survive; Since an organization wants to survive anyway, parties will try to gather as many votes as possible. Now there are a number of solutions for this; one can come up with a solution to a problem that requires some delving into the matter; although perhaps the best solution, it is difficult to explain, or one can provide a solution that appeals directly to the intuition of the people. A simple solution, but not the best solution. Which solution would garner the most votes? In ancient Athens perhaps the first; in our current democracy the second. Why?
Where in the past one had to attend the speeches of the various speakers to be allowed to vote, nowadays one no longer has to listen to political parties to be allowed to vote. Where an Athenian still had to listen to all the ideas that were postulated and explained, a Dutch person only has to cast his vote based on a few one-liners read in the telegraph (or sometimes not even that!). The major shortcoming of current democracy is the lack of obligation to deepen the process before acquiring the right to participate in decision-making; a very dangerous situation. No one is allowed to drive who has not mastered the rules of the road; However, the same person is allowed to participate in decisions about the country and the lives of the people in that country, without any knowledge about this.
Adjustment of current democracy
Are there solutions to this profound shortcoming? Yes, there are. For example, direct democracy is an option; a form that is closer to Athenian democracy than current democracy (Okiva Orr-Politics without Politicians has an answer to this) or a form of democracy for which, just like a driving license, a test must be taken on knowledge regarding the politics or the choice made. Of course there are disadvantages at first glance; This means that the person who makes the test is in a position to provide political guidance. However, there are sufficient solutions to this, for example a test based on a fixed number of questions per election manifesto that each party must submit (multiple choice) for each test.