“Power to People”
At the heart of democracy lies this promise, a promise to give people the power to decide the course of their nation. In this new millennium, we believe it is the best possible thing to do. However, the major reasons why democracy is considered the best today is that it happens to be the choice of most developed nations. We have lived long enough in democracy that we would readily part with our powers. And it seems a dangerous step to take.
But, if we look closer into the functioning of these developed countries, its the functioning of the institutions that actually contributes to its development. The interplay of judiciary, bureaucracy and elected government, in most cases decides the life standard. The irony here is that more independent these institutions happen to be, the better they perform. Which indirectly implies, institutions of bureaucracy and judiciary, need to independent from the control of legislature (the ones people happily elected).
Coming to power in the hands of people, people seem to perform poorly when asked to take major decisions. The reasons being pretty clear, they lack both the expertise and the free time to delve into politics. And even when they do so, they are more swayed by the sense of social acceptance and validation, rather than the moral or logical stance. A burning example of this is the Brexit Referendum, considered to be democracy at its best, showed how fragile and un-foreseeing the general public can be.
The alternatives we have, to democracy, is an autocratic rule or a communist regime. Well, an autocratic ruler does come with a bunch of revolutionary changes that push the country forward. But a few years later when the spark is gone, the same leader become a source of agony. Now devoid of plans and energy, and also of opposition, he demands an eternal throne which in itself is beginning of the end. So, does not this all leave one confused ??