With the American election season starting up again, and another election in the United Kingdom planned in December I think this is a good time to reflect on democracy. It’s easy to glorify democracy given how bad the other options are but I think it’s important to recognise democracy's faults too. In theory democracy is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas where the electorate sorts the wheat from the chaff so that the country is governed in a way that a majority of the people like. Anyone is eligible to lead the country if they apply themselves and run on a platform the electorate likes, and if they misbehave they’ll be punished at the ballot. The problem is the compensation structures in most democracies, typically if a party wins more seats they’ll get more money which gives them an advantage for the next election. And in many cases being an elected politician lands you an above median salary which can make incumbents defensive, playing not to lose instead of coming up with more innovative new policies to win.
These compensation structures also create situations where extreme figures can hijack a party and get the rest of the party to acquiesce as long as the party does well electorally. How many Labour MPs are devoted Corbynites and how many just acquiesce to keep their salary and influence? How many Republicans genuinely want the trade war and have thought the negotiations with the North Korean regime have been successful? I’d argue that the changes in the Republicans’ and Labours’ party lines have been less due to rapid fundamental shifts in the parties’ bases political views, and more due to the changes at the top.
I think it’s important to remember that politicians are people too and that while improving the country is obviously a high priority for them, more mundane motivations such as providing for their families are often driving factors and thus useful ways to understand politicians' actions. It’s easy to say that a politician should abandon their party leader or stop supporting the President on ideological or moral grounds but it’s another thing for the individuals in questions to risk their careers and livelihoods. This is not meant as either a defence of those who acquiesce in the face of extreme leaders or an indictment of them, more as an illustration of the sorts of suboptimal outcomes that can happen when the noble ideals of democracy meet the harsh real world.
What do you think? Ipoleco is meant to be a discussion so I’d appreciate your thoughts on the matter, if you’d like to join the discussion you can find me on Twitter @ipolecoblog or email me at karlix.johansson@gmail.com. You can read last week’s blog post here and please come back next week for a new post.
Written by Karl Johansson, Founder of Ipoleco
Cover Photo by Element5 Digital from Pexels
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