Democracy Misunderstood (German editorial)

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ^ | 21 February 2003 | Stefan Dietrich

[tictoc]

More than 70 percent of Germans side with the German government on the Iraq question, and many believe a government should execute the will of the people if it is articulated this clearly. Isn't the alignment of the will of government and people the democratic ideal?

If this were so, why haven't opinion researchers replaced politicians? With today's means of communication, one could easily organize weekly or even daily votes and pass on the resulting majority views as administrative directives. Obstinate parliamentarians would be replaced by (elected) trustees watching over the evaluation of surveys. Would this be a better democracy? No, it would be its end.

Karl Popper warned of the all too literal translation of the Greek word into German: “Democracy was never, can never and should never be the rule of the people.“ Indeed, it was this interpretation that brought forth the worst aberrations: Where more or less democratically elected leaders proclaim to execute the will of the people, dictatorship follows. For the claim to embody the people brings any attitude that does not conform with the government view close to high treason.

What is so special about democracy is not that “the people“ rule, while an individual or a group of individuals rules in a dictatorship, but that only in a democracy is power lent temporarily. Only here are the people able to decide again from time to time without any blood being shed or the state being shaken in its foundations.

The majority that articulates itself in surveys and through last weekend's street protests has neither the government's information apparatus nor can it weigh the consequences of a certain foreign policy stance.

Responsible decisions, however, presuppose both. When this legislative period is over, voters will not ask whether Chancellor Gerhard Schröder acted according to their will in February 2003, but will judge him on the situation he has created for this country.

This doesn't mean that a government must never do what the majority desires. But it cannot delegate responsibility for the consequences back to the people. And it's not even unfair when a government that followed (or hid behind) popular majorities is later voted out of office.

Past governments have pushed through many major foreign policy decisions, which no longer appear at all controversial, against strong public opposition - from Konrad Adenauer's decision to tie West Germany into the Western alliance to the abandonment of the deutsche mark with which Helmut Kohl aimed to make European integration irreversible.

Kohl wasn't voted out of office because he went too far in foreign policy, but because he bought his foreign policy leeway by giving in on domestic policy issues. Much of the “reform logjam“ which marked his final years in office resulted from the fact that he paid too much heed to popular moods and failed to take unpopular, but necessary action. His political fate proves that voters won't reward the fearful glance at survey results. Responding to the public mood is one thing - governing on the basis of popular moods is another.

[tictoc]

FAZ is one of Germany's three nationwide broadsheets (the others are center-right Die Welt, and left-of-center Süddeutsche Zeitung).

[BMCDA]

German ping

[BossLady]

"voters will not ask whether Chancellor Gerhard Schröder acted according to their will in February 2003, but will judge him on the situation he has created for this country"

CIAO! Gerhard....

[americanbychoice]

Good read. Most people won't get it though. They believe that we have a democracy, USA and GERMANY. Clinton used democracy through polls to gauge how the wind blew, so he could say at any time what people liked.

[desertcry]

People who elect leaders who follow their every momentary, and volatile desires is doomed, for they have not elected a leader, but a leech, and a blood sucker. Americans have done this not too long ago, elected a president who led by focus groups, I pray we will survive that mistake. People who elect leaders who leads, will prosper. I pray that this will be the case of President GWB.