Democracy
J.McLaughlin Homepage
In the 18th century, people were getting tired of divine-right kings and queens. The reaction that was building up was mainly directed against religion. This was a justified reaction. The divine right to rule came from the church and was justifiably made responsible for all its sins and the wrongdoings of divine-right kings. The monarchy was not, per se, considered responsible for what was happening. Therefore, the primary concern was, if not divine right, what would determine the right to sit on the throne?
Many leading opponents of monarchy rightfully proposed that divine right is just a made-up thing put in place by made-up religions to establish and maintain their power and control over the masses. So, if not the Church, then who? Especially in the West, the precedence of Republics existed. Even in Great empires like Greece or Rome, Democracy or constitutional republics they have lived in one form or another. The gods or demigods ruled the kingdoms under the right with the legitimacy provided by what are now called pagan religions. After Christianity became Rome’s dominant or official religion, the divine right mostly came from the Christian church in most of Europe.
The reaction in Europe and the Western world was not just against religion; it was also directed against Christianity. In most places, the argument favoring constitutional monarchies prevailed because the king, among other things, symbolized unity. However, the new political systems differed from those of Greece and Rome. Generally speaking, the monarch had far less authority than in the historical examples, up to the level in Britain, where the monarch was only symbolic.
Two significant countries took a much more radical Path, France and the USA. These were the product of the late Enlightenment. In retrospect, the idea started showing its horror right in the beginning, “The French Revolution of 1789 was the culmination of the High Enlightenment vision of throwing out the old authorities to remake society along rational lines, but it devolved into bloody terror that showed the limits of its ideas and led, a decade later, to the rise of Napoleon.” History.com.
The core principles of Enlightenment were liberty and individualism, inspired mainly by thinkers like John Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire. Enlightenment mostly accepted the idea that the only genuinely sovereign identity is the individual. The central idea was that all artificial constructs must end; the system must revolve around the original natural identity, i.e., the individual. The question was how an individual can have maximum freedom and happiness and how power and control can be placed in the individual’s hands. Certain divine, natural, and universal rights were identified. So, the idea was to replace God’s words with the embodiment of these natural rights or constitutions.
The Constitution guarantees, like a king, that the natural rights of any individual will not be violated in a specific geographic area. The sanctity of natural rights like life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness was uniformly established.
Since the Constitution has established inalienable rights, how can we ensure an individual’s will is executed to the highest possible level? Paradoxically, the solution to this problem was in majority or mob rule, aka Democracy. Every country developed a new system of “electing” the people who would have the right to boss around everyone else, supposedly within the confinements of the constitution. Somehow, the idea is that the majority can trample the rights of minorities. The presumption was that the constitution would protect the rights of the minority or minorities.
Like every other political system of the past, this constitutional republic system did not turn out to be as advertised. First, the constitution did not turn out to be a suitable replacement for the king. The so-called elected politicians could not care less for that piece of paper. Some examples of constitutional republics with “guaranteed” natural rights are USSR, PRC, DPRK, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nazi Germany. Even in countries where it looks like the constitutionally guaranteed natural rights were better respected, the situation does not turn out to be as good as expected.
Take the example of the US. The US and France got rid of the Monarchy completely. Constitutions replaced the king in their entirety. In France, the revolution became highly bloody, and America had to fight a revolutionary war with Britain. The constitution in the USA could not get ratified by the states until ten amendments were put in place that guaranteed natural rights. People thought the aim of freedom was finally achieved. However, the founders had people like Alexander Hamilton, who would “Read between the lines,” and they were also successful in inserting loopholes like the “Commerce Clause.” Although constitutionalists like Jefferson said that they could only find the blank space between the lines, it did not make much difference.
“The United States government, which prides itself in being the leading force in defending freedom throughout the world, has a history of putting a muzzle on news organizations and individuals throughout its history.” Mises.org.
“Signed into law by the Federalist Party president John Adams on July 14, 1798, the Sedition Act made it illegal to print, utter, or publish any false, scandalous, and malicious writing about the government.” Mises Wire.
Lincoln made one right out of two wrongs, “President Abraham Lincoln, in The Truth from an Honest Man, furthered this excuse by proposing the question of whether he should “shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert?”.” Mises Wire.
“With this, President Wilson passed the Espionage Act in 1917. ” Mises Wire.
“After the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor and entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8985, which established the Office of Censorship, without approval from Congress.” Mises War.
The other examples of the failure of Democracy and Republic are infringements on the right to bear arms, Mass surveillance, Violation of state rights, unlimited spending, money printing, inflation and expansion in the size of government, and useless, baseless, expensive, and bloody wars.
