Written by Avi Gupta
Winston Churchill once famously said that democracy was ‘the worst form of government.’ He made a rather good point for, in so many ways, it is a flawed and unsatisfactory system. Churchill, of course, knew a lot about the subject; twice Prime Minister of Great Britain, a prolific author of political histories, and the architect of the struggle to defend and preserve democracy in the face of its two greatest threats last century – fascist aggression and communist expansion.
Sometimes I think Churchill was right; democracy is indeed the worst form of government.How it could be a good idea to put the future of a nation in the hands of the people who are not even educated? Levels of education, understanding of, and even interest in the issues vary wildly. The general public is easily and increasingly seduced by convincing demagogues. In the modern media age, democracy risks becoming like a TV popularity contest; politicians aim to entertain and amuse, offering only short-term populist policies, soundbites, and outright lies – which the gullible public and voters buy. We pay insufficient attention to local candidates, local issues, and local hustings.
Churchill’s thought on democracy always brings me back to my university days. The days when I started to read Political Philosophy. And precisely when I read Socrates.
Socrates was born in c. 470 BCE in Athens, Greece, and died in 399 BCE. He was an ancient Greek philosopher whose way of life, character, and thought exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy.
The philosopher Socrates remains an enigma, an inscrutable individual who, despite having written nothing, is considered one of the handfuls of philosophers who forever changed how philosophy itself was to be conceived. All our information about him is second-hand and most of it vigorously disputed, but his trial and death at the hands of the Athenian democracy is nevertheless the founding myth of the academic discipline of philosophy, and his influence has been felt far beyond philosophy itself. Because his life is widely considered paradigmatic not only for the philosophic life but, more generally, for how anyone ought to live. Certainly, he was impressive, so impressive that many others were moved to write about him.
In Plato’s book “The Republic”, Plato describes Socrates falling into conversation with a character called Adeimantus and trying to get him to see the flaws of democracy by comparing a society to a ship. If you were heading out on a journey by sea, asks Socrates, who would you ideally want deciding who was in charge of the vessel? Just anyone or people educated in the rules and demands of seafaring? The latter, of course, says Adeimantus, so why then, responds Socrates, do we keep thinking that any old person should be fit to judge who should be a ruler of a country? Socrates’s point is that voting in an election is a skill, not a random intuition.
And like any skill, it needs to be taught systematically to people. Letting the citizenry vote without an education is as irresponsible as putting them in charge of a trireme sailing to Samos in a storm. When I see leaders of various countries including India, I think about Socrates, I think that indeed voting is a skill, and if people are not familiar with this skill, they will elect the wrong people.
Crucially, Socrates was not elitist in the normal sense. He didn’t believe that a narrow few should only ever vote. He did, however, insist that only those who had thought about issues rationally and deeply should be let near a vote.
Socrates wanted to tell us that, we have forgotten the distinction between an intellectual democracy and a democracy by birthright. In the present world, we have given the right to vote to all without connecting it to that wisdom. And Socrates knew exactly where that would lead: Demagoguery. Demagoguery means political activity or practices that seek support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
This always made me think, is this what we thought about democracy? And is democracy actually a good form of government where people are not educated enough to understand whom to vote for? I believe that we have forgotten all about Socrates’s salient warnings against democracy. We have preferred to think of democracy as an unambiguous good – rather than a process that is only ever as effective as the education system that surrounds it. As a result, we have elected many corrupt and stupid leaders, and a few well-educated and intelligent ones.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of Youth in Politics.
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