Game Over: Why Democracies Seem to Be in Crisis

Transcription

1 Game Over: Why Democracies Seem to Be in Crisis Susana Torres Prieto, PhD. IE University & IE Business School IE Alumni Weekend July 2017 S

2 What is going on?

3 Questioning Democracy a government for the people, by the people (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg address, 1863) S

4 Athenian Democracy S S Participation only of male citizens linked to founding families Both judges and policy makers (popular courts and assembly)

5 First Critics: Socrates and his disciples Decissions are not made on moral or virtouous grounds, but on appetences of the many, as in oligrachy and tyranny

6 Aristotle

7 Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( ) The right to vote seen as a part of the Social Contract A right, but also an obligation (participative democracy)

8 J.J. Rousseau, Du Contrat Social, 1762 S Private interests become more important than the public good : S But when the social bond begins to be relaxed and the State to grow weak, when particular interests begin to make themselves felt and the smaller societies to exercise an influence over the larger, the common interest changes and finds opponents: opinion is no longer unanimous; the general will ceases to be the will of all; contradictory views and debates arise; and the best advice is not taken without question. Finally, when the State, on the eve of ruin, maintains only a vain, illusory and formal existence, when in every heart the social bond is broken, and the meanest interest brazenly lays hold of the sacred name of "public good," the general will becomes mute: all men, guided by secret motives, no more give their views as citizens than if the State had never been; and iniquitous decrees directed solely to private interest get passed under the name of laws. [ ] S Lack of committment, misidentification of the vote: S Even in selling his vote for money, he does not extinguish in himself the general will, but only eludes it. The fault he commits is that of changing the state of the question, and answering something different from what he is asked. Instead of saying, by his vote, "It is to the advantage of the State," he says, "It is of advantage to this or that man or party that this or that view should prevail.

9 Alexis de Tocqueville ( ) Incapacity of population for making the right choice Lack of control over who is running for office

10 A.de Tocqueville, De la démocratie en Amérique (1835) S Paradox of Universal Suffrage: S Many people in Europe are apt to believe without saying it, or to say without believing it, that one of the great advantages of universal suffrage is that it entrusts the direction of affairs to men who are worthy of the public confidence. They admit that the people are unable to govern of themselves, but they aver that the people always wish the welfare of the state and instinctively designate those who are animated by the same good will and who are the most fit to wield the supreme authority. [ ] S Democracy does not deliver and creates frustration: S Moreover, democracy not only lacks that soundness of judgment which is necessary to select men really deserving of their confidence, but often have not the desire or the inclination to find them out. It cannot be denied that democratic institutions strongly tend to promote the feeling of envy in the human heart; not so much because they afford to everyone the means of rising to the same level with others as because those means perpetually disappoint the persons who employ them. Democratic institutions awaken and foster a passion for equality which they can never entirely satisfy.

11 Three types of criticism SMoral SContractual SFunctional

12 Modern Democracies: a New Social Contract S A voluntary agreement made amongst individuals through which an organised society, or state, is brought into existence (Heywood, 2007, p. 93) S Individuals should act as if they had concluded the contract themselves (cf. criticism by Hume)

13 Social Contract theories S Civil: S the contract legitimises coercive political authority S Moral and rational constraints, not preferences S The contract does not create morality, though it can create moral or political obligations S To secure pre-existing rights and duties S Locke: self-preservation and preservation of mankind (enjoyment of property) S Rousseau: moral transformation takes place from individualistic to general will

14 Rousseau S Problem starts with property, which creates inequality and enslaves men S The contract allows for the possibility of regaining some lost freedom ( obedience to a law one prescribes to oneself )

15 Rawls S A Social contact conceived as a fair system of social cooperation between individuals who are free and equal S The Contract is not a bargaining situation, but a device of representation

16 Is the Social Contract broken? S

17 Global Challenges vs. National Policies Economy & Immigration S

18 How do people get their voice heard?

19 What is a citizen? S

20 Citizenship S A relationship between the individual and th state in which the two are bound together by reciprocal rights and duties. S Citizens are full members of their political community or state by virtue of their possession of basic rights

21 Thomas H. Marshall ( ) S Civil rights (negative rights) S Political rights (participative) S Social rights (positive rights)

22 Is the Contract poorly applied? The Problem of Casting Votes S

23 Thinking Fast: the ordinary citizen Before a complex question: 1. Automatic activity due to perception 2. Memory/memories 3. lntuition (expert o heuristics) If the brain cannot cope, it would simplify the question susbtituting it for another simpler one (Polya), WITHOUT REALISING

24 Thinking Slow: the expected citizen Reflexive, paused reasoning, requiring a bigger effort

25 Two Systems: the use of propaganda System 1 automatic operations, rooted in associative memory, which build up a coherent interpretation of the world around us. System 2 Controlled operations, subjective experiences of agency, choice requiring concentration.

26 Is there a real crisis then?

27 Erwartungshorizont Hans Robert Jauss, Hermeneutical Literary Critic S

28 What can we do?