Magazine
Democracy: Beyond the ballot box
A voter shows her indelible ink mark after casting her ballot at Bhaderwah, during the second phase of India’s General Election this year. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, November 2 2009 at 00:00
Divorce cannot change the fact that a child is the offspring of two people.
No matter how much that child may love and respect both its parents, it cannot split itself between them.
That is how I feel about nationality: I retain the name of my father, but live where my mother is. If the cost is that I cannot vote, so be it.
Today, democracy is touted worldwide as the only acceptable political system.
The word arises in two ancient Greek words: demos, the people, and kratien, to rule.
As practised by the Greeks who coined the word, democracy did not presuppose all people were equal.
It only gave male citizens of Athens the right to speak in public meetings.
Women, children and slaves had no such right.
This was not so different to what prevailed in several traditional Kenyan societies; members of male age grades were entitled to speak on any subject under discussion by their grade — as warriors, junior or senior elders.
Modern democracy presumes that all adults have an equal right to vote and speak freely.
We are told that the voting system ensures that governance is by the people for the people, and the will of the majority manages society.
It sounds fundamentally sensible, yet all of us are aware — from the numerous cases of vote-rigging around the world — that it really doesn’t work very well.
Winston Churchill said it was a dreadful system of government, and that the only reason he went along with it was because we had nothing better.
If nothing else, is this not sufficient grounds to question the system?
The way democracy is presented as the best political system gives a false sense that this has been proved by lengthy experience.
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