A Dilemma of Democracy

December 24, 2004.

The greatness of certain values and practices in the peacetime becomes a weakness in the wartime. Democratic values are great in the peacetime but a greater liability in the wartime or the time of terrorism.

When there is a conflict, democracies around the world (The USA in the West or India in the East) are at a disadvantage as compared to dictatorial regimes for several reasons:

1. The mechanics of democratic governments is not designed to prevent terrorism or any other anticipated crimes.

2. In democratic regimes, the public psychology is of trust as opposed to suspicion in dictatorial regimes. Suspicion psychology acts as a deterrent to crimes as most people make an effort to remain above suspicion minimizing the fertilizing ground for the criminals.

3. Dictatorial regimes sponsoring terrorism easily penetrate into the secrecy of democratic governments, mostly due to the freedom of the media and partly due to the irresponsibility and lack of emotional connectivity of some public officials in critical positions.

4. The insolence and inefficiency of democratic bureaucracies in handling dangers and emergencies cannot be overemphasized. (Ten years prior to the 9-11 incidents, air hostesses in an airplane were attacked by a passenger. Security measures in airplanes were strongly urged. But the bureaucratic memory could not survive its processing delays.)

5. Loose and slow justice systems in democracies provide many escapes and shelters to the criminals.

6. In open, pluralistic, profit oriented societies with freedom of speech and rival political parties, criticism of all core and substantive values is legitimate. It does not allow clear identification of the socio-political problems. Nor does it allow jelling any solution based on public cooperation.

The dilemma is to protect the democratic values and yet cover the weaknesses. The solution to the problems in the changing world seems to lie outside the scope of the paradigm created by democracies. Now we may have to think out of the box. We need to decide what are the core values and what are the luxury values that may be temporarily sacrificed to protect the core values.