The quest for democracy

Abraham Lincoln calls it the 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people'


Irfan Ghauri August 25, 2016

Democracy is both a simplistic yet overly broad term. There are many definitions and interpretations to the term. In some dictionaries, it is defined as a system of government in which the supreme power vests in the people and is exercised directly by them or by their elected representatives through a free electoral system.

Abraham Lincoln calls it the “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. The basic definition of democracy in its purest form comes from the Greek language; the term basically means “rule by the people.” Democracy is defined in so many ways that it has caused much disagreement among those leading various democracies as to how best to run one.

However, all scholars agree on the basic values or what can be called pillars of democracy — they are: sovereignty of the people, free and fair elections, rule of majority, good governance with focus on public interest and absence of corruption, minority rights, religious liberty, independence of judiciary, guarantee of basic human rights, constitutional limits on government, equality of law, due process of law, social and economic pluralism and tolerance. Given that these ingredients are vital for a democracy, if we use them as yardstick to compare it with what has evolved in countries like ours, hardly any of these fit in our case.

It all started with political parties cum family enterprises being established in the country over the years. Among around 350 political parties registered with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), only 18 have representation in parliament. Democracy within political parties, especially the ones tagged as ‘mainstream’ political parties like PML-N, PPP and PTI is an alien concept. None of these parties have any system of intra-party elections.

Under the law, no political entity can be awarded party symbol unless it regularly holds intra-party polls as ascribed in the party constitution they had submitted with ECP at the time of their registration.

The provision is flouted by almost all the political parties, thanks to the laidback and docile attitude of ECP. Hardly any of them hold genuine intra-party polls. Office bearers from the top to bottom are nominated. This engenders a culture of nepotism at all levels devoid of any moral values. This is how a clique is created which ultimately becomes the civilian face of our ruling class. What we get out of this is “oligarchy” (rule of few persons) in the name of democracy.

There is no system in the world that can be called the perfect form of governance. However, among the prevailing systems, democracy is considered best when it comes to regulating public affairs. In the words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25th, 2016.

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