The incredible power of the people; the heartbeat of democracy

Democracy (demokratia; demos for “people” and kratos for “rule”) as a term appeared in the 5th century. It started as a system of government in the cradle of Western civilization known as Greece. Cleisthenes, an Athenian lawgiver, introduced the system in 508 B.C. as a political reform to the existing system of government – aristocracy. The system hanged on three arms of government: the Ekklesia, the Assembly saddled with the responsibility of writing laws and dictating terms of relationship with foreign countries; the Boule or Council of Five Hundred (a group of 500 men from the 10 Athenian tribes which served on the council for a year), which a council of representatives from the different tribes; the Dikasteria, the courts where people argued cases before jurors. Among the three arms, the Ekklesia functioned as the sovereign body. It was the backbone of the system as any member of the demos was given a place in the Assembly. Decisions were made by majority vote.

What makes democracy stands out is its centripetal attraction to the people. It is a rule for the people. It contrasts with other forms of government such as plutocracy which a system controlled by wealthy people. There is no consensus on the definition of democracy but the central theme is that of a rule for the common man. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the USA, aptly defined it as a, “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” The definition became popular after his famous address, the Gettysburg’s Address, during the American civil war delivered on November 19, 1863. In just 271 words, Lincoln delivered one of the best speeches in history. The outstanding factor in the speech is not in the length or big vocabulary. It is his ability to recognize the value of the common man in the rule of his own country. The Greek’s democratic system differs from today’s democratic system – it employed a direct form of democracy and the citizens with legislative rights at the Athenian assembly were limited. For example, women, slaves, men under age 20 and foreigners were excluded from the legislative assembly. Expansion through civilization birthed another form of democracy – the indirect form. In the indirect form, people elect representatives to represent them at the decision making level.

The central theme of democracy, power of the people, comes as a political opium. The limitations with other forms of government is vividly shown in history. That is not say that democracy do not come with it own limitations. Democracy is a dynamic system between the people, the system of electing representatives and the representatives. These arms comes with limitations. The Athenian democracy ended around 460 B.C. as power balance shifted to the representatives.

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The people could be ignorant at the politic of their country. This happens sometimes willingly or as a systemic mindset. Many do not know their representatives beyond names. Only a handful is bothered about policy making especially at the lowest level of government. This provides the representatives opportunities to turn the rule of the people for themselves. And even more than this, as Bryan Caplan stated, “voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational – and vote accordingly”. People often go to electoral polls under the influence of lies sweetened by representatives seeking vote. There is also the pervasiveness of “my one vote does not determine the winner” so I stay at home. This has resulted in low turn out in electoral polls especially in Africa coupled with other reasons. This is just to mention few challenges at the level of the people.

The challenge of the process of electing representatives is plagued with political jargon. One is Arrow’s impossibility theorem named after Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow. It describes the inefficiency of electoral processes in a democratic system. When voters have three or more alternatives, as it is in majority of the electoral processes, “there is no ranked electoral voting system that can satisfies the fairness criteria an election should satisfy – unrestricted domain, non-dictatorship, Pareto efficiency, and independence of irrelevant alternatives”. The localized challenges are clear for the blind to see, potent enough for the paralysed to fell and audible for the deaf to hear. We have had card reader issues at recent electoral polls. There have been concerns about the safety of electoral officials and people during elections. There is the systemic challenge of corruption and biases. Again, this is to mention a few of the challenges plaguing electoral processes.

The representatives do not care about the people until the four year cycle of election comes knocking. This role comes with the challenge of accountability, transparency and patriotism to the state. Despite these limitations, one of the strengths of democracy is the structure put in place to check and protect the people – the judiciary. The judiciary has amidst many three main roles – the interpretation of law to settle conflicts, checking the legality of state processes, and responding with a verdict. In summary, the onus lies on the judiciary to protect the rule of law which is a rule for the people. But this is not free the plague of corruption and bias as we have seen in recent years. It is losing its decisiveness as the last resort for the common man.

Democracy also suffers from external challenges. Military coups stand out. There have been several coups globally with most dominant in Africa. The recent military coup in Mali is a warning that the world is not free from coups yet. On August 18th, 2020, the president of Mali was ousted. Interestingly, the coup was backed by the common men of the country which shows how the people have been treated badly through the instrumentality of democracy. The intervention of international bodies halted the progress of the coup. This should lead us to a point of questioning – is democracy still what it is known for – the rule of the people?

Democracy has fought many battles in history and unsurprisingly has won countless. The power in it is embedded in the voice of the people; that power lies with the people no matter the situation. This often comes to reality when diverse voices unite to express publicly dissatisfaction or disapproval to an action as seen over the weekend with the EndSars protest. This comes in diverse manners – rally, vigil, march, boycott, public display, lawsuit, etc. Social media has also played a great part since it advent.

Protest is part of the democratic tapestry. It raises an awareness. It has achieved victories in history. It has demonstrated its power in saving the common man. There are examples, in fact several of them, of how protests led to change. The Boston Tea Party of American sparked the American Revolution which culminated in America’s freedom from the Britain. The Civil Rights Movement led to the protection against discrimination in America. The Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913 began the move to end the inability of women to vote. Gandhi’s Salt March led to India’s break free from Britain in 1947.

The pages of history is fulfilled with changes that started when people came together to voice their dissatisfaction against an action that goes against the common man. When Rosa Parks resisted the attempt by the Montgomery City Lines bus driver to unseat her based on racial discrimination she never knew it would end in a life changing event. Nowhere in history has the voice of the people been muffled forever.

AUTHOR: Nicholas Aderinto…

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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