To Me, Democracy Is A Dirty Word

With the Nobel Peace Prize going to a jailed democracy activist in China, editorials are being penned in favour of democratising that nation - such as this, from the ToI. I wonder whether the proverbial "blind men of Hindostan" who wrote that ever looked closely at the mess democracy has made in India itself, in the USSA, its greatest champion, and also in Europe, where US pressure led to the dethronement of all their traditional "crowned heads."

Let us being with India - and the complete mess in Karnataka. Ever been to Mysore? Under the Maharaja, this was a 21-gun salute state that was a model of good government for the rest of India. Sir M Visvesvaraya, credited as the builder of modern, industrial Karnataka, was the Mysore Maharaja's diwan.

Or take a look a Manipur - a 11-gun salute state ruled by their traditional Maharaja up to 1947, now under "democratic" military rule.

How about Cooch Behar and Tripura? - both 13-gun salute states ruled by native maharajas, and now dens of lawlessness, communism, corruption, poverty and chaos, because of mass democracy.

I could give over 600 more examples from our own country, for there were over 650 of these "princely states" in British India. Go to any of these places and see how they have fallen off the map. Go to Baroda - a great 21-gun salute state before 1947. And see the mess the city is today.

Let us turn our attention now to the USSA, or to the UK, where sits the "mother of all parliaments." Look at their miserable economies. High taxation, ever increasing deficits and government budgets, collapsing fiat paper money.

The Nobel committee is quite clear as to its intentions on China. This report from Mint says, quoting the committee boss, a politician:

Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said China, the world’s second biggest economy, should expect to be under greater scrutiny as it becomes more powerful, just as the United States was after World War II.

“We have to speak when others cannot speak,” Jagland told reporters. “As China is rising, we should have the right to criticise ... We want to advance those forces that want China to become more democratic.”

We must understand that "democracy" and "liberty" are separate words, with different meanings - and these two are not really compatible with each other. Democracy means more and more Legislation - good for the bureaucracy, but extremely bad for Liberty.

Further, democracy means a "competitive struggle for the people's vote" - and this translates into a race to the bottom as each party and candidate make more and more wild and extravagant promises to a dull electorate interested only in freebies.

So, in Bihar these days, where assembly elections are due, the incumbent chief minister is promising bicycles to all schoolkids, and his main rival has upstaged him by promising motorcycles! We pay for all this - and whoever wins is only looking for an open license to loot for five years.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe's Democracy: The God That Failed analyses the failures of this deity very well. The book is sub-titled "The Politics and Economics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order." The key difference between monarchy and democracy is this - the time horizon. A monarch looks far into the future, when his son will rule. A democrat only looks at his term - and loots and scoots, leaving hell to pay for the next guy, who does the same. Further, the monarch is quite separate from the masses - he does not have a "party" of looters to gift public offices to. He therefore rules with the "capital value" of his State in mind, seeking to maintain it for his successors. If he borrows in emergencies, he borrows less and he repays fast. If he goes to war, these are "limited wars." US democracy has unleashed permanent unlimited wars everywhere. Unlimited borrowing. Unlimited fraud with the currency. This is true of India as well - and the UK. Democracies have squandered the "capital value" of their states. Thus, while we have had long histories of "civilisation" under traditional monarchies, under modern mass democracies all we see is "de-civilisation" because of rapid "capital consumption" on a massive scale.

In my view, this democracy activist in China is no different from Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, also a Nobel Peace Prize-winner. We all know Aung San wants democracy. But does she ever talk of Liberty? Of free markets? Of free trade? How do we know that multi-party democracy in China will not mean widespread socialist measures, as in the USSA, where the Democratic Party is the one that is truly "socialist." See Obama. Does China need a British-style NHS? Do we? Note that the British NHS is the world's third-largest employer, after the Chinese Red Army and the Indian Railways!

What opinion-makers really mean when they support democracy is "rule of Law' and "human rights." The only way to achieve both is through a "private law society." Property, Contracts and Torts - and zero Legislation. Hoppe himself favours "natural order" - and I once heard a recording of his where he says he would still much prefer to live under traditional monarchy than democracy. My own recent book discusses natural order in the opening essay, and the rest of the book is worth reading too, if you want to explore the ideas further. You can read this book here.

I wish China well. They have suffered enough under Maoism; let us now not force multi-party democracy and competitive populism, its natural corollary, on them. Let us instead talk of Law - and Liberty. As the British taught the maharajas of India. If there is one book China's rulers need to read it is Carl Menger's Lectures to Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, available here in India for my readers. Dated 1876, exactly 100 years since the publication of the Wealth of Nations, these lectures represent the finest lessons any classical liberal can give to a monarch - who must be far above party politics. It is particularly noteworthy that the Empress personally selected Menger to teach her son because of his liberal leanings. Rudolf's notebooks, written in his own hand, must have been carefully studied by both the Emperor and the Empress as well, if only to ensure that correct instruction was being imparted. These were the great Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary, who ruled over a vast empire comprising many nations and nationalities. Rudolf knew seven languages by the time he was 15. Vienna, their capital, produced many great men - including Freud, Robert Musil and, of course, Mises and Hayek. Hoppe, in a footnote, provides a long list of all the great men the Hapsburg Empire produced. It was the USSA that dethroned the Hapsburgs - and look at the complete mess that ensued. This must not happen in China. They have reformed their economy well; their infrastructure and their civic management are top-class. They need guidance in the right direction - towards peace, liberty and order. Towards free trade based on sound money. Mass democracy will result in chaos and destabilisation.

To conclude, let me repeat myself - that "democracy" and "liberty" are not synonymous. Indeed, Hoppe says that democracy and Property are incompatible!

I abhor democracy. I stand for Liberty and Property. My creed is best summed up in the famous words of that great American patriot, Patrick Henry:

I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Note that he did not ask for the fucking vote!