For better or worse,the American Right has center stage this week as The Republican Party conducts it's National Convention in Cleveland Ohio.If that's not your preferred fare,The Democratic Party gets it's turn next week.But today I don't want to get bogged down in partisan politics,especially as it is traditionally laid out in most introductory Political Science classes:as ideas located along a left/right continuum.Instead I want to ask,what really makes Democracy work or,how should Democracy work?
We tend to define right and left as being representative of particular values.Generally right,or Conservatism is based on an appeal to tradition,while Liberalism is more progressive in it's outlook.Moreover,most of us tend to have a preference for one or the other of these ideologies in some degree.The classical continuum does not necessarily accommodate every degree of belief,at least not perfectly,but it is a useful if somewhat blunt reference.
So my question then is,preferences aside,is it any particular ideology that makes Democracy work? Again,most people would answer in terms of a preference,and insist that an insufficient degree of their particular ideology in practice renders any society dysfunctional.But doesn't society have a lot more moving parts than that?
In short,I am going to suggest that we ought to rightly take an ecological view of politics,because really,a properly functioning democracy needs to work well as a whole system.It is then, a healthy interaction between and among a wide plurality of ideas that brings about a healthy society.Simply ,it is not sufficient for any political system to be so polarized that it represents one ideological view to the exclusion of all others,even with a wide base of popular support.Popularity is no guarantee of moral rectitude,or the value of any particular ideology or regime,the National Socialist Party of Nazi Germany being the prime case in point.
In a good society,as many people as possible are able to set goals and attain those goals.There has to be something in that society for everybody,some possibility of of self actualization.Those goals,that ability to be something of self actualized worth needs to be supported by governments of any stripe.It is not to say that governments cannot, or even should not proceed to rule with reference to ideology.But,in the exercise of so doing,they are not free to ignore the well being of any member of society.The best governments,then are ones that can provide those people who are least like them ideologically with something of value.Good government does not bog down in partisan ideas,portray dissenters as the enemy other and refuse to participate when it is not getting it's own way.It must participate,do what it has sworn as a matter of duty to do and believe that those of different ideological leanings are doing likewise.It should involve itself in a good,if not superior quality of debate.It should not stack the deck ideologically, using the structures and mechanisms of government to hinder the legitimate activities and undertakings of it's political opponents.All who undertake to govern should share enough of a common vision as to faithfully pursue a society that works on a healthy interaction of competing interests,to the betterment of as many individuals as possible.Blind promotion of a particular ideology for it's own sake comes perilously close to political nihilism.
So,in this season of intense political debate,I ask one single question.And you,as literate American voters should be considering the same question in relation to your political parties and candidates.It's report card time.How is America stacking up?
blyndpapaya
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