The golden calf of democracy

Monday, January 24, 2005

By Lawrence W. Reed

No one knew better how to deflate the inflated than the late political satirist and commentator H. L. Mencken. "Democracy," he once said, "is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." He also famously defined an election as “an advance auction of stolen goods." With so many promises made in this year's elections to so many, his description seems especially fitting.

Mencken was not opposed to democracy. He simply possessed a more sobering view of its limitations than does today's conventional wisdom, which regards it as the unmentioned fourth branch of the Trinity.

Democracy may be the world's single most misunderstood concept of political governance. Commonly romanticized, it is assumed in most circles to ensure far more than it possibly can. The Norman Rockwell portrait of engaged, informed citizens contending freely on behalf of the common good is the utopian ideal that obscures the very messy details of reality.

Pure, undiluted democracy would be unshackled majority rule. Everybody would vote on everything, and 50 percent plus one extra vote would decide every "public" issue - and inevitably, a lot of what ought to be private ones, too. Ancient Athens for a brief time came closest to this, but no society of any size and complexity can practice this form of governance for very long. It’s unwieldy, endlessly contentious, and disrespectful of the inalienable rights of individuals who find themselves in the minority.

People like the sound of "democracy" because it implies that all of us have an equal say in our government, and that a simple majority is somehow inherently fair and smart in deciding issues. Subjecting every decision of governance to a vote of the people, however, is utterly impossible. Many decisions have to be made quickly and require knowledge that few people possess or have the time to become expert on. Many decisions don't belong in the hands of any government at all. A pure democracy, even if possible, would quickly degenerate into the proverbial two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

Suppose someone says, "I just don't like people with boats and jewelry. I think we should confiscate their property. Let's have a vote on that." A democratic purist would have to reply, "All in favor say 'Aye'!" Anyone interested in protecting individual rights would have to say, “That’s not a proper function of government, and even if 99 percent of the citizens vote for it, it’s still wrong.”

In common parlance, "democracy" has been stretched to mean little more than responsive government. Because of such things as elections, government officials cannot behave in a vacuum. That fact is laudable, but it hardly guarantees that government will be good or limited. Even the best and most responsive of governments still rest upon the legal use of force - an inescapable fact that requires not blind and fawning reverence, but brave, intelligent and determined vigilance.

Elections are a political safety valve for dissident views, because they rely on ballots instead of bullets to resolve disputes. They allow for political change without resorting to violence to make change happen — but the change a majority favors can be right or wrong, good or evil. The folks who work to make it easier to vote so more votes are cast should also spend their time encouraging others to be well-informed before they vote.

In spite of this year's candidates singing interminable paeans to "our democracy," America is thankfully not one and never has been. Our founders established a republic, modifying democracy considerably. It provides a mechanism whereby almost anyone can have some say in matters of government. We can run for office. We can support candidates and causes of our choosing. We can speak out in public forums. And, indeed, some issues are actually decided by majority vote.

But a sound republic founded on principles that are more important than majority rule (like individual rights) will put strong limits on all this. In its Bill of Rights, our Constitution clearly states, "Congress shall make no law. ..." It does not say, “Congress can pass anything it wants so long as a majority supports it.”

If you worship the golden calf called democracy, you might want to think about finding a different religion.

Lawrence W. Reed is President of the Foundation for Economic Education, headquartered in Irvington, New York.

After serving as President of the Mackinac Center for its first two decades, Reed became president emeritus of the Center upon assuming his duties as president of FEE.

Reed holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Grove City College (1975) and an M.A. degree in History from Slippery Rock State University (1978), both in Pennsylvania. He taught economics at Midland?s Northwood University from 1977 to 1984 and chaired the Department of Economics from 1982 to 1984. He designed the university?s unique dual major in Economics and Business Management and founded its annual, highly-acclaimed ?Freedom Seminar.? In 1982, he was a major party candidate in the general election for the U. S. House of Representatives from Michigan?s 4th district. He moved to Boise, Idaho in 1984 to direct a policy institute there before moving back to Michigan to head up the Mackinac Center in December 1987.

Under his leadership, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy emerged as the largest and one of the most effective and prolific of over 40 state-based ?free market? think tanks in America. He served a term as president and 15 years as a member of the board of directors of the State Policy Network, a national organization whose membership consists of those state-based groups. vIn 1994, Reed was invited to give the Commencement address to the graduating class of the Colleges of Education, Health, and Human Services and Extended Learning at Central Michigan University (CMU) before an audience of 6,000. CMU conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Administration. In 1998, Grove City College (his undergraduate alma mater) bestowed upon him its ?Distinguished Alumni Award.? vIn the past twenty years, he has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles, 200 radio commentaries, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U. S. and abroad, as well as five books. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, among many others. Reed?s most recent book is Striking the Root: Essays on Liberty. Since 1978, he has delivered more than 1,000 speeches in 40 states and 15 foreign countries, including one at People?s University in Beijing, China.

Reed?s interests in political and economic affairs have taken him as a freelance journalist to 69 countries on six continents since 1985, including five visits to Russia, five to China, four to Nicaragua, three to Poland, five to Kenya, and others to such places as Cambodia, East Germany, Mozambique, Haiti, Japan, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras, Greece, Italy, Australia, Slovenia, Croatia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Israel, Egypt, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iceland and New Zealand.

From firsthand experience, he has reported on hyperinflation in South America, voodoo in Haiti, black markets behind the Iron Curtain, reforms and repression in China and Cambodia, the recent stunning developments in Eastern Europe, and civil war inside Nicaragua and Mozambique. Among many foreign adventures, Reed visited the ravaged nation of Cambodia in 1989 with his late friend, Academy Award winner Dr. Haing S. Ngor; recorded an authentic native voodoo ceremony in a remote region of Haiti in 1987; traveled with the Polish anti-communist underground for which he was arrested and detained by border police in 1986; interviewed presidents and cabinet officials in half a dozen nations; spent time with the contra rebels during the Nicaraguan civil war; and lived for two weeks with the rebels of Mozambique at their bush headquarters in 1991, at the height of that country?s devastating civil war.

Reed was first elected in 1994 to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in Irvington, New York?one of the oldest and most respected economics institutes in America and publisher of the journal, The Freeman, for which he writes a column entitled ?Ideas and Consequences.? In 1998, he was elected chairman of FEE?s board of Trustees and reelected chairman in 1999 and 2000.

His spare-time interests include reading, travel, flyfishing, hiking, skydiving, and animals of just about any kind.

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