IV.24            Functional Democracy
In a democracy the poor [when educated] will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.
                                                                      Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
 
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
                                                  Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)
 
The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. 
                                                  Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
 
Many democracies are dysfunctional because they are insufficiently democratic. They withhold power over segments vital to the people, for instance, the economy. Instead, this power is concentrated in and exercised by a self-serving minority where we regularly find that:
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" while bestowing on them a false sense of entitlement and invulnerability.
This undemocratic, unjust power inequality prevents solving economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental problems. It is this crisis, together with withholding the social truth and education for intellectual competence from the people, that deprives the large majority of deserved life chances that would be possible with a functional democracy yielding universal freedom and well-being.
                                                                              This writer
                                                                         
 
Introduction
A. Why We Need Functional Democracy
B. What Functional Democracy would Accomplish 
 
Introduction
Clearly, living in larger communities offers many advantages over the life in small groups. Social cooperation among equals for mutual advantage yield liberties and a quality of life in relative security not possible in a state of nature where life was often "solitary, brutish, nasty, and short."  And it can be observed that societies governed by the democratic way of life are the most accomplished in offering hope for the ultimate values of universal freedom and well-being through more democracy achieving a functional democracy. However, traditional democracies are only partial democracies and unless reformed into fully functional democracies, cannot produce these values on account that they allow antisocial and predatory activities by parasitical special interest groups, see the chapters of the section The Abysmal Antisocial. These groups exist, and though traditional democracies protect their people from foreign enemies, they fail to guard from domestic ones. 
     Democracies are supposedly governments by the people, rule by the ruled, because the people are represented by elected officials. It is "by-the-people" when these elected leaders’ authority is based on a limited mandate from a universal electorate which selects among genuine alternatives that express the will of the people. It is "for-the-people" if the leaders are in fact acting effectively in the interest of the people. And it is "of-the- people" when offices are available to persons of every kind of social background.
     But even if the above stipulations are met, a democracy is still hollow, that is, nonfunctional unless accompanied by power in areas such as the economy that affect the life chances of its citizens. Moreover, a functional description of democracy must include a theory of the effects of its political system as well as the procedures by which value judgments and allocations are made. If this requires certain minimum material means and a mind-enabling education, then it must be equally available to all.
 
A.            Why We Need Functional Democracy
Functional democracy and autonomous citizens are interdependent for neither one could exist without the other. That is, functional democracy enables citizens to become autonomous by providing a satisfactory standard of living. And autonomous citizens in turn participate in, and maintain, a functional democracy. An adequate standard of living would at least provide:   
  1. A genuine education that yields autonomy through mental competence and knowledge of the social truth. 
  2. The material means to free the citizen sufficiently from the struggle for existence to allow thinking about the struggle itself and thus enable effective participation in the democratic process.
                                                                      This writer
Moreover, we need functional democracy because it can do what traditional democracy has so far failed to do. That is, its basic building block, "The Educated Citizen," can at the ballot box eliminate the illegitimate concentration of power used to prevent universal freedom and well-being. The adversaries of humanity, and the means of accomplishing their immoral goals, are described in the chapters of the section The Abysmal Antisocial.
     While the economic crisis produces fabulous wealth for a few who convert it into more economic and political power to promote their cause, there is also traditional democracy's equally pernicious political crisis:
  1. Its root cause is that it is not the people who decide on important issues but their representatives and heads of governments who often act on behalf of special interest groups and ideologies.
  2. Many citizens are therefore disillusioned because voting for this or that party, the ruling party or its opposition, does not make much difference. They are simply voting as the French say "for a different set of chains and balls."
  3. On account of this disillusionment, many citizens do not even bother to vote. Moreover, they feel it is a waste of time to join a political party; hence, the disappearance of mass political parties.
  4. Traditional democracy's governing social contract, its constitution, does not explicitly provide for the material and educational means to create autonomous--mentally competent, self-reliant in judgments, aware of the social truth--citizens. Hence, voting for many amounts simply to rubber-stamping, endorsing in a routine manner without relevant knowledge and deciding skills.
  5. Finally, traditional democracy, rather than breaking up, allows and promotes the formation of harmful concentrations of power that take away control from the people. This is in part possible because the lawmakers and the government has become an instrument of these special interests and ideologies.   
B.     What Functional Democracy would Accomplish 
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
                                                  Abraham Lincoln (1809-65)
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.
                                                          Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
 
Functional democracy would overcome the economical and political crisis when the people, and not their representatives in the legislator or the administration, vote directly on crucial issues. In addition as noted earlier, functional democracy is the key to the ultimate values of universal freedom and well-being as derived in Ultimate Values Justified as Moral Rights. It would be the democratic ideal of rule of, for, and by the people sufficiently implemented. And as we shall see below, unlike traditional democracy, it includes crucial segments of society upon which peoples' welfare depends. Moreover, it would include parts of the private economy that would be obviously more efficient when consolidated where necessary and controlled by the people.
 
A functional democracy would:
  1. Enact a constitution or amend an existing one to become an effective "Just Social Contract. It would guarantees both negative and positive rights. The positive rights would include the material and educational means, as listed below, to yield educated citizens who can then effectively participate in the democratic process.
  2. Because "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," we need to break up, eliminate, and prevent concentrations of power at private and government institutions. Monopolies, shared or otherwise, would be the first to be broken up. For the evils of excessive economic power see Predatory Political Economy.
  3. Create conditions of equal sharing of power, of political, economic power, and so on.
  4. Equalize opportunity without homogenizing aspirations. With equal opportunity, it is more likely that positions would be filled by the most qualified.
  5. Have the people vote directly on important issues such as going to war, crucial social legislation, etc. This is now possible since we live in an instant electronic communication age.
  6. Be an organized body where power is divided and controlled by checks and balances. Division of power means, one part that makes moral law  (the legislator), one that morally interprets it (the courts), and one that morally implements it (the administration). These institutions must be impartial and not up for sale to special interest groups.
  7. Have a procedure that continuously evaluates results with respect to meeting the constitutional or otherwise agreed on ultimate values such as universal freedom and well-being. If the objectives are not met, the relevant branches of government would then take corrective action. This feedback, evaluate, and correct would probably be a never ending process.
  8. Competitive wages and job security through negative unemployment policies, meaning, there are more jobs available than workers.
  9. Protection from enemies foreign and domestic. In particular, domestic exploiters, liars,
    thieves, and cheats in economic, political, educational, and religious institutions.
  10. The peoples' democratic institutions must assert the right to compete with private
    enterprises. This would include:
  • The takeover of industries that constantly require government aid. The system of privatizing gains and socializing losses must come to an end.
  • The control and management of large corporations on which the well-being of the many depends. Again, if some billionaire shareholders can hire and fire managers, so can the people for the communities gain.
  • The takeover of enterprises that are considered parasitical because they feast of the people without creating real wealth. They would be better run by the people, that is, for the benefit of the many rather than the few, for instance, most banks, other major financial institutions, utility companies, and insurance businesses. 
Note: Other things being equal, the peoples' enterprises are more competitive than the private sector because they do not have to make a profit and employees are more motivated by the stimulus of patriotism.
 
 
Summary: The Social World

Prior to this section we have seen how The Physical World and The Brain-Mind Event made possible The Intellectual Realm which in turn shaped for better or worse the social world as it exists today.  Almost all of us live in a social setting and depend on its proper functioning for our freedom and well-being. Hence, it is important to have a good grasp of what this setting is and how it works. However, and as already mentioned in the Introductory to this work, to adequately understand something, one needs to know origins, development over time, and how things relate to or connect with each other and with the larger whole. The chapters of this section were selected to meet these criteria. They explain the development of the social setting from prehistory to today and culminate in the subsection Triad to Universal Freedom and Well-Being. However, one significant weakness of this account is that it omits religious phenomena, which was most influential throughout history and extending into modernity. Hence, The Religious Realm is the topic of the next section. It is by far the longest section of this work on account of religious beliefs enduring and crucial importance.