Berated by friends – ‘it won’t make any difference’ – ‘they will just talk more tosh’ – for cancelling my attendance at a lunch to attend in its stead a fringe event at a political conference, to influence government policy, the thought ‘if not me then who’ sprung uninvited into my head.
We live in a well-intentioned but struggling democracy contained in a world beset with political leaders leaning towards a dictatorial approach and, in some cases, the alleged rewriting of constitutions to enable their continuance in power. This is not a new thing, in days of old the same objective would be achieved through removal, by a variety of means violent or otherwise persuasive, of those who wished to change the established order.
Struggling? What do you mean struggling?
Now, to quote Churchill:
“democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms
that have been tried from time to time.…” (Ref 1)
The economic challenges confronting us are as nothing compared to the democratic challenge, the economy will alter, reshape, go through turmoil, but will persist in some form. As for democracy, I am not so sure. For example, only 60% of those eligible participated in the 2024 general election, the lowest rate since 59.4% in 2001 and prior to that 57.2% in 1918. (Ref 2)
As a consequence of the ‘first past the post’ electoral system the Labour party won a 64% share of the seats in the House of Commons with a 34% share of that vote while the Conservative party polled 24% of the votes but only 19% of the seats. (Ref 3)
34% of 60% is 20% of the eligible population.
So 20% or thereabouts of the electorate secured 64% of the seats for their preferred candidates, a substantial and (all other things being equal) an indefatigable majority in the lower house. Similar effects have been seen in previous elections and this is not a complaint about it but a statement to raise awareness.
Conversely, and this is worth stating – 36% did not vote at all, 64% of those voting cast their vote for a candidate who lost (which might be an indictment of the system) and 80% of those eligible either voted for a losing candidate or did not vote. Hayek (2006) writes of “coercion with the consent of the coerced” a position in which we permit others to run the country on our behalf in exchange for the right to eject them from office at the next opportunity, should we so wish. That only works if we all join in and clearly many of us did not!
This is not a blog about any unfairness or inequity in the system, every alternative has flaws, it is rather a crestfallen realisation of the seeming disinterest of a very significant minority of voters and a plea to all those eligible to become active voters.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. A healthy democracy requires that each of us receives and exercises our right to vote. Unless we do I think we forfeit our right to complain about those govern us! If we don’t tell them what we want (or don’t), they will tell us what we can have (or not!).
Effectively exercising our right to vote suggests that we need to work out what we want and find ways to express and share our needs and wants with those who seek to exercise power over us. We can do this not by joining a political party (I am with Groucho Marx, I would not join any club that would have me as a member and do not belong to any party) but by recognising the things in society which exercise our minds, which please, entertain, annoy or frustrate us. If we attempt to understand their sources and causes we can speak, eloquently or not, to those who seek to put themselves in positions of societal power and control, and remind them that they remain in those positions as a result of our expressed will.
Engaging with our politicians at every level, encouraging them to explore the emotional and rational aspects of our opinions will drive them to reflect on the ideology (or lack of it) that underpins their politicking and, if they are sensible, to comprehend the gap between what they espouse and what we, the people, actually want. We will teach them to listen.
For the avoidance of doubt, I am not arguing for anything here other than that every eligible person should engage in the democratic processes of the nation – regardless of their views, they should all be heard, even when or perhaps particularly when, we disagree with them!
If we don’t do this then ‘they’, whoever ‘they’ turn out to be from time to time, will give us what ‘they’ want. We need to assert our role in the democratic process by engaging with and being part of it. We will rarely (if ever) get everything we ask – we may though get a fairer, more equitable, more inclusive government that recognises that its legitimacy and that of all of its actions is conditional on our consent – and that way we preserve the inevitably flawed democracy that emerged over the last 1000 years or so and is at risk of being lost through our disinterest.
If not me then who? You? Democracy is not a spectator sport!
References
Ref 1: https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/
Ref 2: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1050929/voter-turnout-in-the-uk/
Ref 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nglegege1o