miércoles, 28 de agosto de 2013

Why it is necessary to renew the concept of democracy and create a new political model

 “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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