“Problems cannot be solved by the same level
of thinking that created them,” Albert Einstein
Index
1. Target of the essay
2. Presentation
3. The great practical objective of politics
4. Methods used for the control of the State
5. Democracy and autocracy
6. Major failures of democracy
7. Are elections the only sources of democracy
and the legitimacy of governments?
8. The model does not take into
account the true reality
9. The story
10. Failure of capitalism
11. Economic failure of communism
12. Political failure of Western
democracy
13. The people do mistakes in
choosing their rulers
14. The political failure of
communism
15. A new political model
16. The basis of the new political
model
17. Direct election of rulers is the
most democratic
18. Only privileged minorities have
access to political power
19. How could be achieved a wide and
fair participation in politics
20. Conclusions
1. Target of the essay
The aim of this paper is to show
that, in reality, democracy has become a system that perpetuates in power the
same elites and, therefore, society's problems are not resolved. For that
reason, it is justified to create a new political model that expands political
participation of citizens.
The analysis was made taking into
account the political reality of the democratic nations of the Western world.
In the end are presented ideas to
achieve the deconcentration of political power through greater participation of
citizens in the conduct of public affairs.
2. Presentation
On August 4, 2012 I published an
essay explaining why it is necessary to
create a new economic model balanced, without ideological prejudices and
summarized it in a very simple concept:
because the two ideologies that have dominated the world, capitalism and
communism, have failed.
In the time between the publication of
the first essay and now I have
appreciated that the failure is not attributable solely to the imperfections of
economic systems but that they are a consequence, directly, of the failure of
political systems, i.e. of the theory and practice of the exercise of political
power. To tackle the theme the first thing we have to say is that economics is
a branch of politics and that, consequently, the economy depends directly of
the political decisions of states. That means that, without a change in the
political system, it is not possible to solve the great problems of the world
which are, in essence, a) overpopulation, b) poverty c) destruction of nature
and the environment.
3. The
great practical objective of politics
The main objective of politics is
the domain of power and this requires first of all the domain of the State.
4. Methods used for the control of the State
There are two methods used for the
control of the State: a) persuasion b) force. When the first is not enough enters
in action the second.
5. Democracy
and autocracy
Democracy is based upon the
persuasion of the elites and the masses to accept the domination of other
elite, through negotiation.
The autocracy is the imposition of
one elite over the rest of the elites and the masses, through the use of force.
Existing political regimes in the
world belong to one of the two trends; there are no exclusions.
6. Major
failures of democracy
Aristotle, who is the pioneer of
political theory, said that the main failure of democracy is that many want to
rule and very few obey.
7. Are
elections the only sources of democracy and the legitimacy of governments?
That's a key question whose answer
would help to understand the political reality of the modern world.
In today's political world there is
a fundamental fact: it is the association of the word democracy with the word
elections. In recent years has strengthened the idea that the legitimacy of
governments comes from the elections and that election is that determines
whether a government is democratic or not. It is an oversimplification of
politics: if the government is born of an election is considered to be
democratic.
That's the concept and the political
model imposed to West and the rest of the world in recent years.
8. The
model does not take into account the true reality
But that concept and the political
model ignore basic facts like the way employed to obtain the electoral victory
and subsequent behavior of governments in the exercise of power. So today there
are governments that are formally democratic, but in reality, in practice, they
are not.
9. The story
After the Second World War in 1945,
the victors, the United States and the Soviet Union began to exert a mastery of
world politics. Since then, the world was practically cornered between two
political positions: a) the unique thought imposed the Soviet Communists and b)
the American democratic model whose main base was the election, a species also
of unique thought, but of opposite sign.
a) The unique thought
Since the founding of the Soviet
state as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, the leaders of the new
state tried to impose their political-economic model, communism, to the rest of
the world; in the early years they did not make it but after WWII achieved
their purpose of domination and established communism in eastern Europe and
parts of Asia.
The communist model denies all human
beings freedom and confiscates all their rights, including the right to private
property, because the state is the owner of everything. Also confiscates the citizen’s
right to think and to express opinions because the communist leaders are the
only ones who have the right to own and to opine.
10.
Economic failure of capitalism
We cannot talk about economic
success of capitalism in the Western world because there are millions of poor
and unemployed. The most iconic is what is happening in Europe, in Spain, for
example, where the number of unemployed surpasses 20 percent. A similar
phenomenon occurs in Italy, Greece and Portugal and to a lesser extent in
France. The exception is Germany, which dominates the financial power of
Europe.
11.
Economic failure of communism
Nor can we talk about economic
success of communism, as it has also created millions of poor in the countries
where it has governed. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, overwhelmed by the
poverty of its population. In other Communist nations occurs the same phenomenon,
including China, whose workers survive in slavery with miserable wages and
endless work days, similar to the start of the Industrial Revolution.
12.
Political failure of Western
democracy
Due to problems arising from its
application in practice, the political model of Western democracy, based on the
balance of power and elections as the sole source of legitimacy of governments
has weakened in recent times.
The balance of power, although it is
the ideal way to avoid the abuse of power over others, in practice has led to
other problems such as the interruption or delay of the state action to solve
problems of society. In practice, the executive thinks one thing, the
legislature and the judiciary another different thing. Generally they do not
agree and meanwhile the damage is to the rest of society.
Elections as the only source of
democracy and the legitimacy of governments has also undergone a major
disrepute because it has been demonstrated that this is a necessary condition but
not sufficient to guarantee democracy and the legitimacy of governments.
13. The people do mistakes in choosing their rulers
For example, through electoral
mechanisms of the time who were essentially second-grade elections, the Italian
people chose to Benito Mussolini and the German people elected Hitler. This
shows that dictators do not always come to power by force, also arrive legally.
What does this mean? Well, simply that election is not necessarily guarantee of
the establishment of a democratic regime.
14. The political failure of communism
Communism, as autocratic system,
represents the absolute denial of the fundamental rights of human beings.
The communist practice in all
nations has turned into realms of terror and injustice.
15. A new political model
For the reasons outlined in this
essay, it is perfectly possible to conclude that it is necessary to build a new
political model that reconciles the need to preserve democracy and human rights
with the need to ensure the efficiency of the state and achieving the major demographic,
economic and environmental objectives of humanity.
16. The basis of the new political model
Create a new political model
balanced and fair is a rather difficult task. The most complex is the
representativeness and legitimacy of governments.
A new political model, to be fair and
representative of society, would have to ensure the participation of all
citizens willing to work in the conduct of political affairs of society.
17. Direct election of rulers is the most democratic
Obviously, the direct election of rulers
is the most democratic and which ensure greater representativeness. So far
there has not invented a different way. It is noteworthy, however, that there
are still countries that practice second grade elections instead of direct
election.
18. Only privileged minorities have access to political power
But the problem is that in today's
world the election of rulers is limited by a fundamental fact: only privileged
minorities with money and/or access to mass media are those that have
successfully capacity to participate in politics. In practice, the media impose
political leadership through their public opinion campaigns. This produces a
concentration of power in these minorities, who do not always represent the
best interests of society, but rather to control the state to meet their own
interests.
19. How
could be achieved a wide and fair participation in politics
The formula would be through public
policy. It should be established a legislation to ensure equal opportunities to
all participants in the political activities legally recognized as political
parties or groups, to spread their ideas through the media.
It should also be ensured the state funding to
political organizations legally established. Such measure would prevent
political parties receive donations from individuals or groups that may
compromise the integrity of public administration.
20. Conclusions
- The state should find practical
ways to ensure the deconcentration of political power through greater
participation of citizens in the conduct of public affairs.
- Politics cannot be a trade in
which wins who have most money or media.
- Consequently, the financing of
political parties should be a state matter, because the political parties are
the instruments through which people access to the political power of the
state.
- In the elections, the state should
guarantee equal participation to the political actors legally recognized to
disseminate their ideas and messages through spaces funded and/or sponsored by
the state.
- The application of these
principles would represent a renewal of democracy.
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