Democracy is on its last legs
——Dabing Li says now and in the past, democracies have failed to work as promised. Inevitably, they become a race to the bottom for the vote of the ignorant masses, resulting in disastrous policies
Dabing Li
The ongoing Occupy movement by pro-democracy protesters has wreaked havoc in Hong Kong. There is no end in sight. Yet, in this melodramatic saga, we may be forgetting the basics: What exactly is "democracy"? Who deserves it? Does it really work?
Western-style "democracy" is a seductive proposition, especially for those with little education and achievements but loaded with "grievances". However, if we look through human history, it seems that this "democracy" hasn't really worked too well.
"One man, one vote" was first instituted in Greece around the fifth century BC and now - with its many mutations - dominates the Western world. But it has inherent problems. The voting masses are often ignorant of the issues at hand and susceptible to political manipulation. Witness the ascent of Adolf Hitler, the democratically elected leader of the German Third Reich.
In recent years, "democracy" seems to have failed in many other places, both socially and economically, and often in glaring fashion. In 2008, the global financial crisis engulfed the world. It started in the US where democracy has, for decades, bred generations of consumers who have had the notion of entitlement ingrained into their minds.
In that name, they indulged themselves, lived beyond their means, and elected politicians who engaged in perpetual popularity contests by promising voters all kinds of free economic and social benefits funded by taxes and the treasury. Apparently, such democracy can help the lower ranks achieve the "American dream" - a suburban McMansion; hence, subprime mortgages to help low-income people buy one.
These subprime junk loans exploded after having been encouraged by the US Congress, extended by happy bankers, then diced, sliced and packaged into asset-backed securities, and sold to financial institutions all over the world. The inevitable mortgage defaults in 2008 triggered the global financial crisis. Was that American democracy at work?
Like falling dominoes, all Western democracies suffered. The worst hit was Greece, where, for a long time, voters kept electing those who promised the most from their national treasury. When the Greek treasury had been bled dry, politicians started to borrow - the so-called sovereign debt. They promised and promised, borrowed and borrowed, and spent and spent. Greeks began to take it for granted, as if it were their entitlement to live the high life on other people's money - until Greece defaulted on its sovereign debt.
When the necessary belt-tightening - austerity - ensued, the Greeks suddenly found that the high life they thought was their entitlement was just a sham, financed by other people's money, which they could not repay. They took to the streets of Athens, smashed windows, burned cars, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with riot police, all in the glare of global media, all in the name of democracy, entitlements and grievances.
That was Greek democracy at work.
The question is why - why is democracy failing so broadly and so miserably? It is failing in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. It has already failed in the Philippines and Thailand. But why the United States, where education and democratic institutions are well developed? Why Greece, the cradle of democracy and civilisation?
Unfortunately, the answer may lie in human nature. We simply may not deserve democracy; we are just not made that way. We are all, by nature, selfish. We are helplessly susceptible to manipulation, particularly to perverse promises of free breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
The most basic mechanism of democracy is "one man, one vote". By the nature of demographics everywhere, the majority of votes are at the bottom of each society. There are always more workers than technocrats. And so, in order to get votes, politicians race to the bottom. There, the voters care about themselves. What's good for society, for its future, even if understood, often becomes irrelevant. In opinion polls and voting booths, only their own self-perceived narrow interests count. All politicians understand this. They race to the bottom, bribing the masses with the national treasury. All modern-day democracies inevitably degenerate into this race to the bottom.
The premise for democracy is that voters know what's good for all and will vote rationally; this premise is utopian. Another democracy utopia is "majority rule". In reality, a tiny minority can often exert a disproportionate amount of influence.
In Hong Kong, for example, an illiterate old lady, manipulated by a few in the name of "democracy", became the poster opposition figure against a proposed key infrastructure project. The delays that she caused will cost Hong Kong billions of dollars. She and people like her are the masses, and they have the votes.
Should any advanced society let these people decide how to arrange its vital affairs? I'm afraid not.
In Singapore, a benign dictatorship has transformed a tiny poor economy, in less than 50 years, into a first-world manufacturing and service hub, where economic prosperity and racial harmony are the envy of all.
In China, for the past 30 years, a unique system of consultative decision-making by the government has succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, and generated unprecedented economic growth and cultural revival. By purchasing power parity, China is now the world's largest economy.
It seems that history is being rewritten about the seductive system we call democracy. The writing is on the wall; Western-style democracy may be on its last legs.
Dabing Li, a Hong Kong-based former management consultant and investment banker, was born in Beijing and lived through the Cultural Revolution. He studied in the US, and attended Harvard Business School. |
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发表于 2014-12-27 15:50:29
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