Introduction
William H, Riker wrote the book ‘Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice’ in 1982. In this book, Riker disputes the fact that democracy exists in the nations of the world. According to Riker (1982), there are two types of democracies; the liberal/Madisonian tradition and the populist tradition whose origin is Rousseau. The liberal form of democratic theory ensures that tyrannical majorities and officials are controlled through voting while the populist model ensures that the people’s will is converted into the officials’ actions through voting (Riker, 1982). The will of the citizens cannot be accomplished if the voting process is unfair. The same case would apply to the control of officials who can only be controlled through fair elections, says Riker (Mackie, 2001). Riker puts across that democracy is flawed and meaningless. Countries have a given system of voting, one that politicians can easily change to their advantage and if the latter were to happen, the change could not be identified because of the private interests underlying the citizens’ interests in such countries (Mackie, 2001). Many other writers such as Daniels, Versteege also agree that democracy is indeed flawed. In this article, the writer gathers information (from the authors mentioned above and others) supporting the argument concerning the inaccuracy of democracy.
Democracy
Democracy is a government system that is comprised of four major elements. These factors include; a system that is tasked with replacing the ruling party with another by carrying out free and open elections, a situation where citizens can freely indulge in politics, protection of the rights of humans, and a rule of law in which the rules apply equally to all citizens of a given country (Hilla University, 2014). Whereas most nations in the world claim to be democratic, the situation on the ground reflects otherwise. Among the countries described in the latter statement include Japan, the United States, and South Korea (Versteege, 2017). Elections in some countries are not conducted as expected by the law, in that not all persons are granted the chance to exercise their freedom of electing leaders of their choice, and the worst of all is that human rights are interfered with by all means possible.
There are two types of democracy; direct democracy and representative democracy (Daniels, 2014). Direct democracy is one in which people cast their votes and the one with the most votes wins, whereas representative democracy is the practice in which citizens vote to elect an individual as their representative in the ruling coalition (Daniels, 2014). Flaws can be observed in the direct form of democracy in that if a citizen is not among the majority, then their voice cannot be heard. The latter limits the citizen from actively participating in politics (Hilla University, 2014). The representative type of democracy is also dented in that if the individual voted in by the people is not to be elected, then the people end up not being represented in the regime (Daniels, 2014). Another flaw related to this form of freedom is the question of how a single individual can represent millions of people. The representative is not in a position to understand the needs of all the people and thus no democracy. It would be understandable if people were to elect many representatives, rather than one. In the U.S., both forms of democracy are exercised.
If a country was preparing to hold a free and fair election, it would not stop election observers from different countries from appearing in its polling stations. In 2016, the Russian Diplomats were seeking to be present during the American polls. However, they received a stern warning from the U.S. and they were even threatened to be taken to court (Gorka, 2016).
Even though the Russian Diplomats were not American citizens, there was no point in deterring them from being at the polling stations, unless, of course, they were hidden agendas. Agendas such as the one carrying out an election could be unfair and deny some citizens the chance to vote. Some of the candidates expressed their fears that democracy was not practiced during the voting period. Some of these leaders such as Trump complained that their primary election might have been rigged (Gorka, 2016). The latter is a confirmation that democracy in the United States is so flawed that their leaders are complaining. As written earlier, every citizen should be free to engage in politics and also elect the person they hope to be their leader (Hilla University, 2014). The government should not stand in the way of human rights.
Democracy is an instrument of delivering governance, and previously, it has been seen to be flawed. Winston Churchill had the thought that democracy was indeed the worst way of governance (Dowding, 2006). Democratic procedures have of late been mentioned to be defective due to the invention of various fields of literature such as that of social choice. The two types of freedom (direct and representative) have been identified rarely the needs of the public of a given nation (Dowding, 2006). Most of the leaders in powerful places are only interested in making money for their use by using public funds and stock more for their campaigns. Democracy is easily manipulated by individuals whose purpose is to use the regime in power to profit (Daniels, 2014). In a direct democracy, the person with the majority votes wins. For such a person to win, they require the most airtime on media platforms. These characters will require funds to achieve the latter, and these funds are stolen from the institutions of government (Daniels, 2016). They then persuade the citizens to vote for them, even though they are not credible leaders. In such a situation, democracy is not exercised in any way.
Riker was one author who viewed that the two types of democracies (direct and representative) rarely represented the citizens' needs (Dowding, 2006). Riker talked about the theories of Arrow, and the one of social choice, which he stated was the best in understanding all systems that make up the political arena. If the two theories are applied simultaneously during an election, some social choices will lose meaning; and it is only in such a situation that democracy can be said to be consistent and without any flaw (Riker, 1982). The latter proves that democracy is a practice that can be hard to apply.
Riker talks about political science while defining liberalism and populism and favoring one against the other. Therefore, it is important to learn about the concept of political science to link it with democracy. Science simply means the accumulation of facts (knowledge) and reformulation of old sentences that previously have been regarded as false (Riker, 1982). According to Riker (1982), political science is a field with no history. The latter is portrayed in the manner that political regimes may experience change, faster than the rate of knowledge accumulation. Democracy, as seen earlier, is a form of legislation that can empower the citizens (Independence Hall Association, 2017). The latter means that a country with a two-party system has a flawed democracy because power has been given to the people but in the wrong way. Riker wrote about Duverger’s law which states that; the two-party system is favored if the plurality rule is applied while selecting an election’s winner (1982). Plurality voting can be compared with the type of democracy known as direct democracy. Majority voting is a system whereby the person with the most votes becomes the winner; if there are many contenders, the winner only has a plurality (Riker, 1982).
Riker continues to explain Duverger’s law in his book to help readers understand the idea of political science. While Duverger was writing the book in 1963, there were three electoral systems and they included; plurality voting, run-off majority voting, and proportional representation (Riker, 1982). The first mode of the electoral system has been discussed in the previous paragraph. Run-off majority voting happens when there is a voting process dispute. According to Duverger (1963), the winner of that election is the one with a simple majority (Riker, 1982). In such a scenario, the two-ballot system is also used to point out the final winner. In the writer’s opinion, the latter does not qualify as a practice of democracy. There is yet another electoral system that needs the winner to obtain a given quota of votes, and it’s known as proportional representation. The equation for the latter system is v/ (s + 1) or (v/ (s + 1)) +1; v represents the number of votes cast and s represents the figure of the winners to get selected (Riker, 1982). In this equation, s>1, thus at the finality of the voting exercise, some winners will be below the plurality (Riker, 1982). All these electoral systems do not represent a flawed form of democracy.
Democracy can be determined in many ways such as the voting system and the involvement of citizens in the lawmaking process. Rabon who is a life coach and a retired Navy officer poses a question concerning the number of federal laws that involved direct voting by voters to be passed into law in America (2016). Rabon also argues that the number of constitutional amendments that have involved voters of the United States is very few there seems to be none. For a nation to be said to be democratic, the president should win by popular vote. However, the latter is not the case with America; Rabon states that no leader has won the American elections by popular vote (2016). The reason why democracy is deeply dented is because people of countries such as the U.S. have allowed the government to exceed the constitutional boundaries, and they perform that which is mandated by the voters. Citizens do not take their time, and they neither put effort nor work towards making democracy work, thus making it flawed (Peracchio, 2016).
More authors continue to agree with the reasoning that democracy has become meaningless. According to Luo (2016), democracy is indeed flawed right from the bottom upwards. The latter is evident by the fact that people have become so self-centered, an act that leads to corrupt behavior. The people lack a moral base, and the latter is reflected in the national government. Corruption makes democracy impossible. Most leaders are in government for their profit, not minding the needs of the public. They deny citizens their rights. Thus one can conclude democracy is messy and flawed. As seen earlier, the citizens are sometimes given the freedom of speech but instead, they waste this opportunity by engaging in other less meaningful activities such as being on the internet (Peracchio, 2016). The internet, if used in the right way, can be a very significant platform for protecting democracy by expressing one’s feelings.
Nations used to experience and practice full freedom in the previous centuries. However, this has changed, and most countries no longer experience full democracy; democracy has become flawed due to various reasons. Government institutions are among the leading platforms that have exposed flaws in democracy (Laferriere, 2017). The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has also agreed with the claims that democracy has become dented (Laferriere, 2017). The EIU publishes the Democracy Index which reflects the world political trends. The index is a score between 1 and ten in which countries get divided into 4 groups; full democracies range from 10.00 to 8.00, those with flawed democracies range from 7.99 to 6.00, some countries fall under the hybrid regimes, and they range from 5.99-4.00, and the rest are in a class known as authoritarian regime, and they range from 3.99-1.00 (Laferriere, 2017).
The score is derived from five various categories namely; ‘electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties’ (Laferriere, 2017, np). Although America was rated highest with 7.98, it was still within the range of flawed democracies. Japan came second after the United States with 7.99 (Laferriere, 2017). The latter shows that democracy is still flawed in the two countries mentioned. When it comes to the workings of government and political affairs, the two countries scored very low; America scored 7.14 and Japan scored 7.22 (Laferriere, 2017). The two nations are in the class of flawed democracies when it comes to the two fields identified above government functioning, and political participation are two broad categories that define democracy (Riker, 1982). If these two are flawed, then democracy is imperfect.
Hans-Herman Hoppe who is a political philosopher states that democracy is rotten (Torres, 2016). Ideally, governments are reelected to protect the integrity of the people, but upon taking realms of power, governments are at times sabotaged by the cartel of the wealthy who from behind the curtains control the affairs of the action to further their political, social, and economic issues. The long-run effect of this intrusion into the intended interests of the people who validly vote in a government that has their interest at the core is a great compromise to democracy which amounts to fraud (Riker, 1982). This is the type of intrusion that amounts to the internally founded fraud of democracy.
In other countries, internal democracy has been fraud through external sabotage and attack. This arises when other nations superior to the subject forcefully interfere with the interest of the subject country. In many instances, foreign intervention is usually done politically or through military intervention. The inability of weaker nations to further their interest due to interference by strong nations amounts to democracy fraud (Simonson, 2013). In many instances, third-world countries tend to depend on external borrowing to bridge the gap in their budget deficits. They do that in the unlimited hope of getting the loans unconditionally to finance what they presume to be good to them through their well-identified processes. However, the lending nation usually places conditions that greatly exceed the interest of the recipient nations, this is an economic sabotage that frauds the democracy of the subjected nation.
Democracy is a successful long-term con (Peters, 2015). Such successful long-term con thrives due to the blindfolding consent in which the people conform to the thought that they are indeed represented. Furthermore, the people are comfortable with dictation which would otherwise not be accepted when such transcription comes from unquestionable leadership like a king or a source that cannot be questioned. In a country like the United States, the voters' majority vote in a presidential election is at times overridden by the majority of voting colleges; one might get popular votes on the national stage but not become president-elect as their competitor ends up with a majority voting colleges but few votes on a national platform. The latter leads to the notion of built-in anti-democratic structure found in the American constitution (Landy, 2001)
Democracy is a fraud due to corruption entrenchment in the processes of running the nation, (Simonson, 2013). In many instances, nations have witnessed some form of rewards dished out in exchange for votes instead of the people deciding on the grounds of take and give. It’s much easier for an individual to forego his vote in exchange for money other than ideas, especially in a situation where previous governments failed to deliver on their promises. Such corruption-driven processes also involve driving funds to the most preferred voting region with greater votes to win them on grounds they are cared for. This interferes with a free and fair election which creates an opportunity for democracy to fail (Bigg 2017).
It is the role of the nation to ensure that there is full information on entitlements the government has provided to the people and that in changing times such benefits may be withdrawn. In many instances, people will take such rights as permanency rights that should last indefinitely in the longevity of time (Franck 2012). Should such entitlement be withdrawn, the people turn to be foes of that regime and can oust it through their voting rights (Bigg, 2017). Such moves are a significant threat to healthy democracy which greatly compromises it.
Democracy frauds take cause when mob rule takes center stage in the affairs of the nation. Unrestricted democracy means that those who are many decide over the least, this creates room for a less powerful and influential minority (Simonson, 2013). In the bid to ensure that there is fairness between the majority and the minority, nations come up with systems such as the doctrine of differentiation of powers which limits the interest of the people to an extent that intrinsically compromises democracy (Mojapelo, 2013). Many states have secrets that the governments that are duly placed in office don’t say to the people. Such secrets are not in line with the vast saying of the government the public by the citizens and for the public and as such the people should know everything their government is up to always (Bigg, 2017).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, democracy is a definition of what the people of a defined territory wish to exercise their freedom in matters revolving around their social, political, and economic affairs without any form of compromising interference. It’s the people’s role to ensure enough balances are in place to protect their democracy and that they are carried out the last. In a world that is greatly evolving through increasing regional and global ties, integrity which greatly links to democracy is highly threatened by external forces. Riker presents, by all means, the possibility that democracy is flawed and that if some theories were to be used in tandem, democracy would become meaningless. Democracy has been described to be of two forms; direct and representative democracies. These two types do not exhibit a literal meaning of freedom; thus the subject becomes flawed. The U.S. has been pointed out as one country whose democracy is deeply flawed, with the government going beyond constitutional boundaries and carrying out functions that are meant for the voters. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Japan and America are some of the countries whose democracies are deeply dented, mostly in government undertakings and voter participation.
References
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