“So what is democracy, anyways?”
If I were to be asked this question by a politically astute distant relative, my first reaction would be to say that seeing as how much smarter minds than me have been unable to reach a consensus on the answer to this question, it’s unlikely I’d be able to enlighten her over dinner. But I would give it a try.
First, I would explain to her the different ways to conceptualize democracy. Personally, I prefer minimalist definitions, as they allow you to move up and down the “ladder of generality”, as discussed by Collier and Levitsky. To me, the minimalist definition of democracy would be free and fair elections, and the protection of civil liberties. Ideally, these liberties would extend to all citizens equally.
In my opinion, this is the most troubling part of democracy for me. As discussed in class, surely a line has to be drawn somewhere in the extension of these democratic rights to a country’s citizens. Age is a key example of this. If we let two year olds go to the polls, we can expect that other people would be manipulating their decisions, as we can’t expect them to inform themselves. So where is this line? Why is it that we feel that an 18-year-old can make a more informed decision in the electoral process than a 17-year-old?
The purpose of democracy is both to give citizens the opportunity to choose their leaders, but also to protect them from the leaders they choose. In Canada, for example, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects Canadian citizens from the potential actions of elected government.
At the end of the discussion with this distant relative I would, of course, refer her to take POLI333 at UBC.
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