Democratic Ideology V/S New Challenges, By T.S. Khanna, January 10,2015

Foundation for Better Government

 January 10, 2015

Democratic Ideology V/S New Challenges

By T.S. Khanna, January 10, 2015.

Based on certain ideology, democratic governments are the product of the time and circumstances they were created in.  At the time, attaining democracy was the goal in itself.

Now the experience indicates that the present form of democracy is not a panacea to all our social and economic ills.  Quite the opposite, democratic systems are conducive to creating certain problems that have no democratic solution.

Call of the time demands that democratic governments may perceive the desired future scenarios and establish goals to pursue the future with respectively supportive constitutions, which may also be goal oriented rather than only ideology oriented.  Democratic governments must be re-equipped with preventive powers to meet new challenges created by advancing technology and old values.

Democratic governments may now revisit the ideology of

• Freedom: freedom from what and for what with limits to prevent its abuse,
• Natural rights, along with the attendant obligations,
• Separation of religion and government; note that all religions are at odds with democracy and every religion has its political side.  Diversity in democracy cannot be accommodated with conflicting sanctified values of religions.  Religious values may be examined without sanctity to sift out unacceptable values under the democratic set up.

Further, democratic governments must abandon the practice of political correctness that may only shove the dirt under the rug to avoid facing the hard solutions, which keep getting harder by delaying.