Modernizing Democratic Systems

By T.S.Khanna, March 18,2010.

Since the first built “Model A” car, there have been numerous design, operational, and structural improvements in cars. However, American Democratic System is still in the “Model A” format. The younger democracies, including India as the world’s largest democracy, have also been adopting an easy copy of the “Model A” format.

Political civilizations, like religions, start with a certain philosophy shaped by the preceding critical times. At the start, the newly shaped philosophical ideas are professed by the leaders to be the “final truths” by invoking the authority of God. With the passage of time, the shelf-life of those “final truths” may be over but by the force of tradition, convention, and habit, those ideas continue to be the socio-political norms.

At that stage, such civilizations, especially democratic civilizations, become vulnerable to the opposing forces. The changing times dictate that certain democratic ideals and the “final truths” be updated for the sake of improving performance quality while maintaining stability and security of the social order in democratic systems.

Individual freedom and social cohesion are generally at variance. For a progressive society, a certain level of social cohesion is a necessity, but, unfortunately, it cannot be attained only through rational arguments. Democratic systems are unable to perform well with a high level of diversity and a low level of social cohesion.

Among other problems in need of urgent attention in democratic systems are (a) improving the quality of elected officials, (b) improving the quality of voters with equal opportunity, and, (c) developing zero tolerance for corruption in all governmental operations.

Since the early 1950s, the American Democratic System has been well examined in various areas pointing out the need for some ideological, operational, and structural improvements. In the absence of a non-partisan organization with adequate powers to implement or enforce the needed improvements, most good ideas have been deformed, reshaped, or resisted by partisan politics. In essence, the work of the nation’s intellectuals is virtually ignored.

While the intellectual capital in the democratic systems keeps depleting, their performance continues to deteriorate to the point of non-sustainability.

In light of the rapidly changing world politics, one does not have to be a Cassandra to see that democratic systems, in their present form, are not sustainable.

Every democratic system needs to establish on a permanent basis “Non-partisan Overseeing Commission” with adequate powers to
• Introduce flexibility into the system to make it equal to the need of the hour;
• Identify and strengthen the weaknesses in the system on an on-going basis;
• Stop depletion of the system’s intellectual capital, involve the non-partisan intellectuals and take proactive steps to improve the performance quality of the system, making it free of corruption, inefficiency, and wasteful spending.