Pete’s blog

The unweekly email is back! Getting an email every week from me was clearly unsustainable and was ruining the name ‘unweekly’ Want to write a bit about governments in the next few mails. Going to start with some thoughts about the worst form of government… except for all the others (thanks Mr Churchill).
Let’s begin with an ideal utopia. Imagine a country where everyone is very well educated, politically savvy, aware of everything going on in their country and are concerned citizens. They decide that the best form of government for them would be a democracy – they would elect from amongst themselves the best leaders to run their country. Since everyone is so switched on politically, this is quite an easy task and they do indeed elect a superb leader who does all the right things, promotes the greater good and makes the country a great place. Now this person is doing such a great job running the country that everyone else stops worrying about politics and events in their country – they know that they are in good hands and that their leader will always do the right thing. Then it comes time to elect a new leader. Unfortunately the people are slightly less switched on this time – so both the people doing the electing and the choice of candidates is not as good as the first time. No one really minds, the new leader does a pretty good job anyway, the country continues to grow and the people forget even more politics. A couple of cycles later and no one is really interested in politics, nor events in their country, nor the concerns of the people, nor issues the country faces – there is a government that takes care of all that for them. Unfortunately the people chosen to lead have been getting progressively worse. The voters don’t really care or know about the broader issues and bigger picture, and only really care about their own little world and its problems. They have consequently started voting for the candidate that offers quick short-terms gains and quick fixes to their problems. Since the candidates are chosen from the general population and the general population is less politically savvy, the candidates know very little about politics, government, what the true problems the country faces and how to deal with them. The candidate that will win is now the smoothest talker, not the best leader, the one who makes the boldest promises even though they are impossible to keep. The original people in this utopia would have been able to see right through such candidates, but now the people are enamoured by them.
And so you have the natural decay of democracy.
And this is the reason why democracy is such a difficult form of government to form and maintain. Firstly, to form a democracy the people need to be politically savvy enough to understand it, to want it and to have people amongst them who are good leaders. George Dubyah’s idea that you can somehow impose democracy on a country is doomed to failure. If the people don’t buy into it, it will collapse all too soon, especially if they feel that they are not truly able to choose their leaders and if they do not understand what their leader’s role should be. Secondly, maintaining a democracy requires that its people do try to remain politically savvy. This unfortunately takes energy and commitment. People have to keep up to date with current affairs, understand not just what their needs are, but what their fellow countrymen’s needs are, and to be able to understand enough about politics and leadership to be able to judge their leaders. The stronger and greater the number of people that do this, the stronger and greater the democracy. Democracy is a fantastic form of government because it makes its leadership accountable and provides an opportunity for the best leaders to come to the fore. But in order to work it needs its citizens to care and to take an interest. Democracy is government by the people, and so the government is only as intelligent as its people, as wise as its people and as caring as its people.
How about you? Do you know the issues that your country faces? Do you know what your government is doing? Do you care about the problems and needs of your fellow countrymen? Do you take an interest? Do you stand up for the issues that are important? Or do you just complain about how bad the government is and how it never does anything for you? Do you not vote because you believe there is no point? Do you just let the government get on with governing whilst you try and live your little life?  If you don’t care then maybe democracy isn’t for you.