Strengthening Democracy Hierarchically

One of the best things modern times offers to all of us is democracy.  Everyone has right and privileges that cannot be taken away by anyone.  Also, we take collective decisions on how our surrounding be managed or governed.  Of course, in any system, some individuals or groups are chosen/elected to take executive decision. The remain section, an integral of the democratic system, plays an important part in democracy.  In true democracy, both, the executive and the commoners, shape the policies, execute the work, thus make the system function.  

Yet, there seems to be a constant mistrust and friction between the two sections, the administrator and others, which is a big impediment to democracy. In this blog, I will try to discuss my view on this topic.

In a typical scenario, we blame the top person (politician or top administrator) for all the ills of the system.  But, we forget that we are also decision makers in many forums: as a family member in a family, as a teacher in a class, as a member of a committee, etc. Many of us, rightly concerned about the failure of democratic norms, violate democratic values ourselves. Most of us think that our decisions are good for our subordinates or system; in other words, we do the same violation that we accuse our top person for.  It appears that a major focus of present-day democracy is election/selection, and consequent scuffle between “us versus them” between the administrator and commoners.  

Let us look at this issue a bit more closely, and from another light. To me, the “us versus them” syndrome is most apparent in communism, where the “exploited class” (A) is always at war with the “exploiting class” (B).  It is hard to dismiss the fact that there is exploitation at present times.  But there is exploitation at all levels.  I have seen many ardent socialists who ill-treats their subordinates, spouses, and children.  So, many of us are exploiters in some forums, and exploited in some others.  Thus the class A and class B are hierarchical, like fractals we study in science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal).  In fact, some parts inside us belong to class A, and some others to class B.  

To strengthen democracy, we need to work at all levels or hierarchy, from micro to macro. Concretely, we can think of institutions of family, neighborhood, block, village or city, state, country, and the world.  In an academic institution, it involves classes, student forums, faculty and staff forums. committees, and institution. It will require significant social engineering for getting democracy to work at all levels.

The ideas of present-day democracy originates from the French revolution that weakened of role of monarchy and church in state functioning (I am not competent to comment on with Greek democracy, or Janpad, people’s state, in post Buddha times).   Many argue that the present day political power lies with oligarchy (a few with money power and education), hence we are far from real democracy in the political sphere.  In other spheres like local administration and institution, democracy is yet to take concrete shape, specially in India.  The scientific institutions in India, from academies to institutes, universities, and colleges are not very democratic.  We need strong democratic norms in such institutions. 

A related issue is role of an individual and collective in a democracy.  To me, it is self-evident that the society as a whole is getting individualistic.  This attitude, though it originates from individual liberty, runs counter to democracy.  As a member of a democratic system, we need to set aside some time for the betterment of the collective, since our well being depends on it.  We need to strive for the rights of our subordinates, as much as for ourselves.  A well-cited example in India is that we clean our house, but dump the garbage in the street.  The path of an academician is somewhat individualistic; Yet creation of excellent research and teaching environment requires democratic participation of such academicians.  A big concern is that  a large section of the people  remain aloof in the democratic functioning (in giving critical feedbacks, raising voices and concerns). It is very critical that everyone participates in individual pursuits, as well as in collective excellence.

There are strings of related issues: how to bring democracy in an inhomogeneous system with low levels of literacy?  Does every voice have a single vote, or they are weighted by expertise? Can hierarchy exist in democracy? I am sure a lot has been said about them, and a lot needs to be explored.   

To conclude, at present we have no better system than democracy.  But the democratic norms should sip at all levels, for which all of us have to evolve as a decision makers and decision takers.