Lessons of Democracy

As a new wind sweeps throughout the middle east. Us Occidentals look upon the happenings with a certain unease. The fact is that this democratic revolution in the radical sense (radical as for root) of the term are changing forever our perception of democracy.

For some time now in our modern occidental style democracies, popular involvement in politics has been on the down side. A big gap has been created between on one side the governed and the other the government. Political power is capitalized in the hands of an elite merely, probably at most 5 percent of the total population. Press and politics are gathered into the same grey body, civil society is only an extension of politics, and citizenship has for definition the right to vote ever 4/5 years. The fact is that the questioning that is happening south of the mare nostrum is not happening to it's north. Maybe the infiltration of power so deep into our society has created a sort of empathy of the governed? Maybe democracy has made us political slaves of some sort? The fact is that we have a lot to learn form our southern brothers in this quest for righteous government.

The uprising in Tunisia and Egypt have been very much publicized throughout the occidental world, yet for us at least for the majority of us (I do not considered myself as part of this majority) the political revolutions of the Arab world are but part of processes of democratization that has finished in most of the western world since the mid 20th century. Well I guess that the heroes and parents of our modern democracy must be rolling all over their graves trying in vain to crawl out and put some sense into our humble beings. If anything, democratization is never over, it's a cycle and with each generation or few generations comes a need of what I would call "re-democratization". In the history of political science its said that the implementation of democracy and democratic institutions was hard long battle called democratization it's a very simplistic approach the truth is that the accent of democracy is a much more complicated and tangled tale, and it can surely not be contained within a sentence, but then again it's just a vulgar explanation of common dogma. True democracy did not fall form the sky it was a long and bloody battle, but whoever said it was over? Because if the democratization of our modern occidental societies is finished then I guess democracy lost.

Democracy in name exists throughout the occidental world, but does it exist in theory? As we have seen with communism an ideal can exist and be chanted on by various supporters and never really exist in reality, once again humanity is face to face with the never ending problem of theory vs theory in practice. The democratic ideal is far form being fulfilled not even in our wildest dreams, but with the Arab revolutions of 2010/2011 a new breath filled what at times seemed to be a lifeless body.

First of all if anything the Arab revolutions have proven to us that civil society is the basis of any democratic society, if civil society doesn't rise up form time to time to "to water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants" then democracy can consider itself a death row inmate. 2nd of all, the Arab revolutions have questioned the form of modern governance, of how our modern governance works and the axis on which such government rotates. The Arab revolution put under the spotlight a notion that french sociologist Bourdieu called "La violence symbolique" or in English symbolic violence, which is the oppression of the state through promising social equality and social ascension but through it's institutions maintaining social hierarchy and a sort of bizarre "class-warfare". 3th of all probably the most important lesson is that the Arab revolutions have proven to the world that democracy is question of always keeping power within the grasp of the powerless. It's that we occidentals have forgotten the most important of lessons, democracy is unlike any other regime it maybe it's strength maybe it's weakness but power must always emanate form the "people" the low-classes of society (as would say Marx), the classes that are most capable of progress because "progress" for them is question of survival not a trend. So when democracy loses it's popular foundation the card-house crumbles. And finally the 4th lesson politics is politics and politics is sacred. When the affairs of the "polis" become mixed up with interests, when politics the affairs of all of the inhabitants of the "polis" become the privilege of some, when a regime is the tool of oppression some political machines scrap it.

Now only time will tell, if regime change and the inauguration of new democratic* regimes will really bring the change needed and deserved for so many or is it a cover up or mask to implement the same old same old?

As John Philpot Curran said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"

Sky


*Democratic: the fact is that for a very long time a period occidental governments want to obscure now, we talked of the toppled regimes of Ben Ali and Mubarak as "democratic".