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Elites’ Democracy
versus Peoples’ Democracy
 Americans,
Europeans and Indians proudly present their democracies as the
best available system of governance. Britons and Americans
present their democracies as oldest whereas Indians present
theirs as the largest in the world.
There is nothing wrong with Britons’
Americans’ or Indians’ claims about their democracies. They are
model democracies, oldest in British and American case, and
largest in Indian case, in the contemporary world.
While peoples of many other countries are
struggling to establish democratic systems in their states it
would be wise to look at the state of already established
democracies and possibility of establishment of genuine
democracies in other aspirant states.
Are British, American and Indian democracies
genuine? Yes, they are. However, they are democracies of the
elite in which people of these countries go through the
electoral process every four or five years, but they do not
control the decision making process in these countries.
In UK, USA and India ruling elites control
the state decision making process. Their constitutions are
tilted in favor of ruling elites. Consequently, the ordinary
people of these countries do not reap the benefits of these
democratic systems. In all these three model democratic states,
common citizens do not get the fair share of the social,
cultural, political and economic pies.
Disgruntled common citizens in these
countries take it to streets for trivial issues; where,
sometimes, they face brutal police force. They protest against
internal and external policies of their democratic governments
without making any significant impact on those policies. For
example, large number of people in these model democratic states
protested against Iraq war without making any impact on their
government policies. Citizens of other democratic European
countries protested in millions at a time in all major cities,
but their marches and rallies could not force their governments
to change their policies. Similarly, millions of Americans
marched against Iraq war in all major cities in the United
States however, Bush Administration did not budge. It continued
to kill people, spend money, build-up arms piles, and fortify
armed forces in Iraq. Other than war, the citizens of democratic
states protest against many other issues related to
international financial system, internal monetary policies,
taxes, environment, health care and crimes, but the governments
of these democratic states stay at course without responding to
peoples’ demands.
By granting their people the right to
peaceful protest, democratic governments think they have done
their job. They have fulfilled the requirements of democracy and
they can continue their policies, stay at course, and make
decisions of their liking related to state matters.
Does granting the right to assembly, deliver
speeches and make peaceful protests, fulfills the requirements
of democracy? No, it does not. Democracy is much more than
granting these rights to the citizens of a democratic state.
Democracy, like any other organic process,
requires evolution to continue to reach to new heights of
social, cultural, political and economic refinements in the
lives of the common citizens of a democratic state.
If common citizens’ voice is not heard in
these democracies, it means they have become rotten. They have
stopped the evolutionary process. Their benefits are not
reaching to the last men in lines in these democratic states.
Democracy is a hope and dream for millions of
people who are forced to live under iron clad systems. If they
learn, the citizens of democratic countries live under similar
circumstances, their voices are not heard like the people who
live under iron clad systems, their hopes will drown and their
dreams will shatter.
Democratic states: UK, USA and India have
reached to a certain level of sublimity in democracy, but they
are still less then perfect democracies. Their constitutions
serve the interests of the elite class real well, but when it
comes to the common folks of these societies, they are slanted
backward.
It is obligatory for these democratic states
to allow their democracies to continue to evolve to egalitarian
levels. It means democracies have to give up their elitism and
turn into peoples’ democracies. They must reform their
democracies through constitutional process to the point where
the rays of the sun of democracy start shinning on the faces of
the lowest of the low in these democratic societies. It can only
happen when the social, cultural, political and economic fruits
of a democratic system reach to the last men standing in social
lines.
Turning elite democracies into peoples’
democracies will guarantee the survival of democracy as a
system. Otherwise, democracies will continue facing cyclical
crises every then and now, become rotten and fade away like any
other imperfect system.
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