The Dark Side of Democracy

I was taught to believe that one of the great benefits of government is its usefulness in overcoming collective action problems.

I was taught to believe that one of the great benefits of government is its usefulness in overcoming collective action problems.  If you’re not familiar with the term, all this means is that even
though people know that good things come when everybody cooperates,
there is always a temptation to cheat, to be the one person who acts
selfishly while everyone else cooperates – and yet still reap the benefits of others’ cooperation. Imagine your local church potluck… If everyone else brings food to the potluck, then there will enough food to go around, so you don’t really need to bring anything. You could show up to the potluck and eat your fill without contributing. The problem of course is that if everyone else made the same choice to freeride on the generosity of others, you would all go hungry.

Government has long provided a solution to this problem. Make it a legal requirement that everyone cooperates, and enforce the rule by punishing the defectors. (Taxes are the most obvious example, but traffic laws are another.) In democracy, we feel especially good about this solution because we ourselves vote for the laws (or at least the lawmakers) that require us to contribute. It is not a dictator telling us what to do, but our own act of collective self-discipline. Because we have a government, we are forced to do what we know we should have done anyway.

I, for one, am grateful that we have a government keeping us honest. Although I hope that my Christian commitment to social justice would motivate me to contribute 15% of my income to social programs even if there weren’t taxes, I would rather not find out just how selfish I am capable of being. I would like to believe I would never blow through a red light, even if there were no cops to ticket me. Sadly, my speeding record indicates otherwise. I am therefore grateful for the fact that the government can do what we as a collective cannot do on our own.

At least I was grateful. Until I saw the new Batman movie, Dark Knight. There I was reminded of the more sinister side of democracy. In this particular subplot, the Joker has put bombs on two ferries filled with people. He tells each ferry that the only way to save the lives of everyone on board is to detonate the bomb on the other ferry. It is a Prisoner’s Dilemma, but with a morbid twist. While in a typical Prisoner’s Dilemma, the best possible outcome occurs when both players cooperate, in this scenario, if neither ferry destroys the other then the Joker will destroy both. (Unless, of course, Batman somehow finds a way to save them all.)

The passengers on one boat are committed to democracy, so they take a vote as to whether or not to detonate the bomb on the other boat. The result of the vote is clear – a large majority has voted to detonate the bomb, killing the passengers of the other ferry. All that is left now is to push the button. Yet no one does it. Each person recognizes that killing the passengers of the other ferry is wrong. Only a psychotic person could do such a thing on their own. (Notably, not even a ferry full of convicted criminals would do such a thing.) The passengers were capable of voting for someone else to pull the trigger, but it was just too horrific of an act to do themselves.

This is the dark side of democracy… when rather than asking the government to do what we know is right, we ask the government to do what we know is wrong. When overcome by fear, we are capable of thinking horrific thoughts, of imagining doing great violence to another. But whether Christian or not, our humanity, our morality, and our compassion for our neighbor usually prevents us from individually acting on these fears. Through the power of the vote, however, we can empower the government to do things that we would not do ourselves. By letting our fears guide our voting, we may empower the government to commit unthinkable acts of violence.

The implications for America today are manifold. Is capital punishment so different? Is war so different? Is deportation of illegal immigrants so different? In these instances, are we asking the government to do what we know is right because we lack the self-discipline or cohesiveness to do it ourselves? Or are we asking the government to do what we know is wrong because we lack the courage to face the consequences of doing what is right?

As Christians, we are not immune from fear. If we are not careful, we too may be tempted to vote for a government that will commit acts of egregious violence. We may tell ourselves that we have not sinned personally, but we cannot hide from the fact that, in a democracy, structural sin belongs to us. We can point fingers at no one else. We voted for it.