Is Democracy The Opium Of The Masses?

Winston Churchill famously quipped that “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried.”  With this statement he was expressing a view that many share: yes, democracy has its faults, but it is better than all of the alternatives.

Churchill’s opinions carry a lot of weight.  In a BBC survey of British attitudes in 2002 the British public voted Churchill as the greatest Briton to have ever lived.  Presumably for his rousing speeches and defiant stand against Hitler at the beginning of the Second World War.  With this level of support, verging on veneration, it is assumed by many that everything he said was equally great.

But was Churchill right?  Was he right about democracy?

Democracy today is in a terrible state in many of the most advanced democratic countries in the world.  Many people believe that the political system is broken. Politicians are corrupt at best and incompetent at worst.  The democratic system does not appear to work effectively and this raises questions about the political legitimacy of democratically elected governments.

Don’t you think it curious that democracy – the concept of one person getting one, equal, vote – is rarely used in other aspects of human social organisation?  Is an army General democratically elected by comrades in arms?  No.  Is a hospital surgeon democratically elected by fellow doctors? No.  Is a head teacher democratically elected by fellow teachers? No. Is a company CEO democratically elected by fellow employees? No.

Even in families, that most personal of social organisations, there is no democracy. Parents run their homes as paternalistic benevolent dictatorships. We literally grow up being told what to do by authority figures, at home, at kindergarten, at primary school, at secondary school and even at university. This system can continue throughout our working lives.

So why is a president elected democratically? Why are our congressmen, senators and members of parliament elected? What makes us think that politics should work so differently?  Democracy did not form spontaneously. It was created. It has evolved since it was created, do doubt. But the political system was created by people who had power in the first place. People who apparently gave up that power and voluntarily handed it to other people.

But one thing we know about human nature is that once you have power it is very hard to give it up.

Which raises an interesting question. Did they ever actually cede power?  Is the growing dissatisfaction with democracy merely the realisation that democracy is merely an illusion? Are we like Dorothy pulling back the curtain to see that the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz is nothing more than a terrified old man pulling levers? We are disappointed and frustrated.

Is democracy the opium of the masses, used to dull our senses so that we do not realise we are powerless?

What do you think?