Rethink Democracy 1 (After 2022 Midterm)
- Jia Han
- Nov 17, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 25, 2022
I will write in English because many of the next generations cannot read Chinese. Some references are, however, in Chinese. If you cannot read Chinese, all of them are based on English literature. You may open the links to see what English literature they are based on and might get some ideas. As I often said, the political philosophy of ancient China is practically nothing in comparison with Greek philosophy. Marxism which is prevalent in today’s mainland China is reactionary and evil. They are in fact somewhat related [1,2]. If measured by freedom as Hegel argued, both Marxism and ancient Chinese political philosophy lag behind liberal democracy by at least 2500 years [3-5].
Modern liberal democracy is a new invention, first realized in the US. In fact, the US was established as a republic, not a democracy [6]. The US became a democracy in part because of President Andrew Jackson. Interestingly, Andrew Jackson is Donald Trump’s idol. (When Trump moved into the White House, he asked to hang a portrait of Jackson. When Biden moved into the White House, Biden took down Jackson’s portrait and replaced it with Obama’s.) Modern democracy is quite different from Athenian democracy. For a concise comparison, see [7].
Democracy as a political system had a bad name until recently. For millennia, democracy was very rare. The reason is given in [8] in terms of philosophy and in [6] in terms of the history of politics. When democracy functions smoothly, it is great. This is well known in Athens. However, democracy likely degenerates into mob rule (tyranny of the majority) which is even worse than autocracy. Ancient Rome had perhaps the most widely ranged ruling types, from monarchy, republic, autocratic, despotic, dictatorial, and empire. (BTW, the current Biden policy on international relations is wrong. He wants all nations to be democratic, which is impossible in any practical time frame). Ancient Athens’ democracy lasted less than 200 years. There is no guarantee that American democracy will last longer. Something James Miller also acknowledges even though he was born a democratic activist, and left-leaning at that [6].
Why did America succeed while many others, notably France, failed? Steven Smith’s textbook Political Philosophy [9], provides an excellent answer. Alexis de Tocqueville’s classical book, Democracy in America is THE classical book on modern democracy. [9] lists three reasons which I commented on in [10]. There are other factors but these are important ones.
Another important factor is conservatism. British parliamentarian and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is commonly regarded as the first to propose conservatism. During his lifetime, there were two revolutions: the American Independence and French Revolution. It is widely known that Burke was sympathetic to the American Revolution but disapproved of the French Revolution. (If you might want to know more, see for example [11].) Conservatism in fact is quite important [12,13].
References:
韩家亮：法西斯、共产党、和儒教 http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=32280
韩家亮: 比较马克思主义与儒教（5） http://beijingspring.com/bj2/2010/280/410201954706.htm
Peter Singer, “Hegel: A Very Short Introduction,” Oxford University Press; Revised ed., 2001.
韩家亮: 从四方面看马克思主义的反动（4）http://beijingspring.com/bj2/2010/280/44201944334.htm
James Miller, Can Democracy Work? Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
A. C. Grayling, Democracy and Its Crisis, Oneworld Publications, 2017.
Steven B. Smith, "Political Philosophy," Yale University Press, 2012.
Andrew Heywood, "Political Ideologies," 4th ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Why So Many Countries Failed To Adopt British Democracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmEDaa1Tg0&t=13 (10-28)
Comentários