Limitations of democracy

Democracy is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. It passes into despotism.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

Unlimited freedom is dangerous.

Everywhere is eastern Europe, attempts to mix democracy and market reforms are now encountering much the same contradictions. Democracy requires that the reform process should enjoy broad-based social support. But vigorous free market conditions have jeopardized the welfare of much of society, and can only be sustained if society is excluded from the policy-making arena. Democracy also presupposes some degree of mass participation. But for much of the population, the whole liberal programme represents no more than a collection of theories, which appears to have enabled a flamboyantly rich minority to expropriate collective property. Democratic reforms also depend on an open and accountable political system. But the peaceful ending of communist rule required a contract between old and new elites, and a distribution of powers and offices which remains even now highly questionable. Stable democracy also necessitates intermediate institutions. But these have merely led to the proliferation of interest groups, which have blocked each other at every level, thus posing a growing barrier to necessary action.

Western democracy is a political system built upon Western culture's worldview that people are driven by self-interest. In traditional non-Western societies, the notion of an individual autonomous from the community, traditions, religion or the cosmos does not exist. Such societies are organized on the basis of "fusional relationships" with no differentiation between community/individual, subject/object, inside/outside, the supernatural/natural etc. Inequality, otherness, domination and hierarchy are not recognized, so a political system to assure them in meaningless. Introducing democracy to non-western cultures often introduces the very characteristics it is meant to erase in Western culture. This is because to organize "democratically" requires the recognition of power over others, a concept not accepted in most indigenous cultures.

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.