{"id":717,"date":"2011-02-22T08:47:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T08:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/02\/is-democracy-better\/"},"modified":"2011-02-22T08:47:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T08:47:00","slug":"is-democracy-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/02\/is-democracy-better.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Democracy Better?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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With the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya the hope is expressed that the people of these countries will be able to establish democracies.\u00a0 The assumption is that democracy is better than monarchy or communism or single party totalitarianism or a dictatorship. Is Democracy (in and of itself) a better form of government?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it is necessarily. In our \u2018Democracy\u2019 do we really have government \u2018of the people, by the people and for the people?\u2019 or do we have a massive bureacracy with decisions being made by unelected \u2018experts\u2019 appointed by other unelected \u2018experts\u2019. Are our rulers really elected by the people or are they puppets manufactured by slick media men funded by large corporations, wealthy individuals and special interest groups? Is our democracy \u2018for the people\u2019 or \u2018for the fat cats?\u2019 Are the fabulously wealthy, corrupt elite at the top of our society any better than Gadaffi, Mubarak and the rest of the mega wealthy tyrants across the world? They and their powerful friends manipulate the world economy and when they use the armed forces to control our \u2018strategic interests\u2019 around the world\u2013and end up oppressing the poor\u2013they might have better dress sense and be\u00a0have a nicer image,\u00a0but are they any more righteous?<\/p>\n

Do we really get the best rulers when they are elected by the majority? Are the majority necessarily good, noble and true just because they are the majority or if the populations are themselves corrupt, will they not elect a corrupt person who promises them a short term solution, and buys them out with\u00a0bread and circuses? The decadent and self serving people will elect a ruler who is also decadent and self serving. We get the rulers we deserve.
Perhaps I\u2019m exaggerrating to make a point, and the point is this: any form of government is only as good as the people in the nation that makes up the government. Any police force is only as good as the people it polices (for it is from that group of people that the police come) Any political system is only as good as the individual politicians, judges or rulers. A monarchy that is built on noble, self sacrificial principles may be a good form of government under which the people prosper and are happy.\u00a0A single ruler or a single party state that truly seeks to serve the people, achieve balance\u00a0and share power and wealth and create opportunities may be a good form of government. Likewise a democracy built on the concept that the elected rulers are\u00a0the servants of all\u2013could be a noble\u00a0and fine form of government.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, any form of government that is dominated by ruthless, self seeking, ambitious and power hungry people will be corrupt and will eventually end in tyranny and revolution.\u00a0This is why personal virtue is vital for any political system to bring about a truly good and free society. The\u00a0ruler must himself be virtuous, but\u00a0so must the whole society, for a corrupt society will despise a good and noble ruler just as a corrupt ruler will despise a good and noble populace.<\/p>\n

This is where the Catholic\u00a0worldview becomes so important. Catholics should not believe in the strict separation of Church and State. That is not to say we support a \u2018State church\u2019 or that explicit religion must be integrated into every aspect of national life. Instead we believe that the teachings of Christ must\u00a0consciously\u00a0influence the\u00a0governments of\u00a0the state for the good of the people. We are to be salt in the dish and yeast in the dough. Through Catholic education and the Catholic religion we should be reminding our leaders and teaching future leaders the principles of servant leadership. We should be grooming rulers who\u00a0are\u00a0virtuous\u00a0\u00a0at the same time that we teach the people to follow those same principles of virtue and self sacrifice.<\/p>\n

People may hold these principles without holding to the Christian religion, but without the Christian religion they will not hold them for long because there is no ultimate motivation to do so. What human being, given great power and wealth, will have the nobility of spirit and self sacrificial ideals to truly serve the people and lay down his life for them every day? Apart from the grace of God, no one, and if there were a person like that he or she would probably not be seeking power in the first place.<\/p>\n

This is why, in the end, political solutions to the world\u2019s problems are not the ultimate answer. G.K.Chesterton said, \u201cEvery argument is a theological argument.\u201d Same here. Every form of government will be eventually become corrupt unless it is founded on a supernatural faith which calls all men to lay down their lives in service of others\u2013just as the Master did.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya the hope is expressed that the people of these countries will be able to establish democracies.\u00a0 The assumption is that democracy is better than monarchy or communism or single party totalitarianism or a dictatorship. Is Democracy (in and of itself) a better form of government? I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Democracy Better?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya the hope is expressed that the people of these countries will be able to establish democracies.  The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/02\/is-democracy-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Democracy Better?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya the hope is expressed that the people of these countries will be able to establish democracies.  The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2011\/02\/is-democracy-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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