In Search of Genuine Democracy

By Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi

The international community celebrated the Democracy Day on September 15, an

acknowledgement of the importance assigned to participatory governance and constitutionalism.
Democracy is viewed as a flexible, egalitarian and people?s oriented governance system that is
suitable for diversified societies. It is now so popular that even dictatorial regimes adopt some
semblance of democracy. Consequently, democracy exists in different countries in various shapes
and forms.

Long time ago, a British philosopher, C.E.M. Joad, made a comment about Socialism that can
now be applied to democracy. He said, ?Socialism is like a hat that has lost its shape because
everybody wears it.?

This comment implies that only the use of label of ?democracy? does not make a political
system democratic. The key question is how judge the quality of democracy. Another problem is that
democracy is equated with political status-quo in some countries like Pakistan where any challenge
the sitting elected government is often described as playing into the hands of the adversaries of
democracy. Still another problem is that many elected leaders think that their electoral victory gives
them license to pursue any political agenda until the next general elections. Democracy has one
major weakness because it can be destroyed by democratic means. The elected government can
undermine democracy by resorting to what is described as the ?tyranny of the majority? which
involves the use of the voting power in the parliament to pass legislation that negates the values and
spirit of democracy. An elected leader can become an authoritarian ruler by using the democratic
institutions and processes to advance personal power agenda.

Democracy takes roots gradually over time provided the dominant elite internalises democratic
values and norms and works towards implementing them in letter and spirit. Unless the competing
political players learn to restrain them on their own on the basis of the fundamental assumptions and
principles of democratic theory, the country will suffer from democracy deficit.

The first major requirement of genuine democracy is the holding of regular elections that are
perceived as fair, free and transparent by the major competing political parties. All of them should get
a level-playing ground and the procedures from the filing of the nomination papers to election
campaign and the polling day arrangements as well as counting of votes and the declaration of
result should to the satisfaction of the candidates and independent observers. The voters and the
political parties should learn from electoral experience that they can change the government through
the ballot box.

Second, democracy is based on liberal constitutionalism. It needs a well-established

constitutional and legal system that recognises civil and political rights, equality of all citizens
irrespective of religion, caste, ethnicity or language and region. An independent judiciary ensures
that the Rule of Law is available to all citizens. The civil and political rights have to protected not only
from the excesses of state institutions and functionaries but also secured against powerful interest
groups that resort to violence or a threat thereof against any particular community or region.

Third, the accountability of rulers and their immediate families is another condition for improving
the rating of democracy. No ruler is above law and he/she can be held accountable for their official
conduct while in office. There should be no tolerance for the conflict of official and private financial
interests on the part of the rulers. The people holding key political offices cannot pursue personal
commercial interests and the members of their immediate family cannot exploit the official position of
their parents or guardians to their financial and business advantage.

Fourth, all major government transactions, especially involving state funds, must be transparent and
available to any one for inspection. If sensitive security issues are involved in any official transaction
it could be shared with the relevant committee of the parliament and public dissemination of
information can be avoided.

Fifth, democracy cannot be sustained if the elected political government cannot control corruption
and partisan use of state resources by the permanent and political officials of the government. Any
democratic system will falter if the key government leaders and officials freely engage in illegal
practices for making money, allow some people to engage in corrupt practice to secure state
resources, ignore financial corruption and looting of state funds in order to build political support.
Merit and professionalism should be the main criteria for managing state affairs.

Sixth, the government must provide basic services to citizenry to secure their voluntary loyalty
for state institutions and processes. These services include education and health facilities for all,
provision of clean drinking water, civic amenities and related facilities that make it possible for the
citizens to lead a peaceful and secure life with the hope of better prospects for the future. The more
the government works for the welfare and betterment of the common folks, the greater are the
prospects that the people would be politically and psychologically attached with the political system.

Seventh, the state policies must take care of the disadvantaged sections of the populace. The
state must intervene in the economic and societal domains in order to remove sharp economic
disparities among people and regions and work towards promoting socio-economic egalitarianism. If
inequities increase in the society, it will contribute to breeding discontent, alienation and violence.

This seven-point criteria can be used to judge the quality of democracy anywhere. What matters
most is the overall direction of the political system. Democracy will become sustainable if the
governance system is moving in the direction of achieving these goals and the citizens learn from
experience that the government is genuinely working towards improving the quality of their life.

The countries that have returned to liberal constitutionalism and democracy after long years of
military or authoritarian rule, must learn from the counties like Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil, to name
a few, on pushing the military back and strengthening electoral democracy. These civilian
governments performed in the economic domain, ensured good governance, provided a relatively
secure and peaceful living to common people and gave them the hope for a better future.

A non-performing government cannot secure democracy only by engaging in propaganda against

the military to subdue it. Can Pakistani rulers learn from these countries on improving the prospects
of democracy? 2/2