Against Centralized Democracy

The US presidential elections have mesmerized the world press who look upon it as a “celebration of democracy” – just as they look upon elections in India as well. Yet, in both the USA as well as India, there is growing awareness that all is not well with the sort of government that people are getting – through all these elections.

Many years ago, just before the last elections, Ilana Mercer wrote a piece called “Democratic Despotism” that really shook me. Here she contrasted Rousseau with Voltaire – heaping a great deal of much-deserved abuse on the former.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau embedded the weasel word “social” into political discourse with his “social contract” – and ever since the individual has been sacrificed at the altar of the collective. He exalted the role of the legislator, and it is indeed he who brought about this “democratic despotism” we suffer from today.

Yet, Rousseau was Swiss; his statue sits proudly in Geneva; and we never hear of Swiss elections, nor do we even hear of any Swiss political party. The Swiss landesgemeinde practice direct democracy. The Swiss political system is entirely decentralized and a souvenir I brought back shows the flag of the nation surrounded by the flags of all the 29 cantons. I had read somewhere that no Swiss citizen knows the name of their president – and I tried it out during my week there, asking over 100 locals what the name of their country’s president is, and no one knew! This is the world Rousseau came from. To him, I am sure, US or Indian “democracy” would appear awful.

The problem, then, is over-centralization – a problem that both India as well as the US suffer from. Powerful central governments make a nonsense out of “democracy” because the democratic ideal is to diffuse power, not concentrate it.

In the US, the huge popular disaffection with George Bush’s presidency is reflected in Neil Young’s latest album, Living With War, which contains a track called “Let’s Impeach the President”. There is another plaintive one called “Looking For A Leader” – which clearly shows that what the rebels of the 60s lacked was intellectual leadership and the consequent intellectual clarity.

If America needs a real leader in thought – which always must precede action – then the man is Lew Rockwell. His latest article, “We Don’t Need A President” should be read by all Americans – and all Indians as well. The long quote from Thomas Paine should be inscribed on all public walls, for all the people to read. Paine was one of the giants of the great American Revolution – and a firm believer in a natural social order. Lew Rockwell follows the tradition, and he has noted that I do too.

Rockwell calls for canceling the elections – or putting up a president who will dissolve the central government.

This is an idea India needs as well. And elections here are just a year away. We must think now.