5. Elections and Rationalists
1. (a) “Only when the monster
called the masses is decomposed into its component men and women, will an
atmosphere be created in which democratic practice becomes possible, in which
there can be established governments of the people and by the people. In such
an atmosphere, it will become possible to practice direct Democracy in smaller
social groups, because to make individuals self-reliant, they must be freed
from the feeling of being helpless cogs in the wheels of the gigantic machines
of modern states, which allow them no other function than to cast a vote once
in several years, and give them no idea of how governments function, so that
they cannot even effectively help their government, if they wanted to.” (1)
1. (b) “If you deal with men,
ultimately you can appeal to their reason and deal with their conscience. But
in the mass, men’s reason and conscience are also submerged and suspended.
Masses respond more easily to emotional appeals, because men merge into masses
on their lowest common denominator. The level of the politicians then adjusts
itself to this mentality. Elections do not ensure democracy but put a premium
on demagogy.”(2)
2. (a) “To ensure that elections
reflect an intelligent public opinion, there has to be an intelligent public
opinion first. Then only elections can become an instrument of democracy not
sprung on unprepared electorates in a concerted effort to sweep them off their
feet. Such an alternative approach to election begins with people in their
localities meeting in local or regional conferences for serious discussions,
not for public harangues, but for educative and enlightening propagation of
these ideas. Through such informal regular meetings an intelligent public
opinion is created. Having come to understand political questions and economic
problems for themselves, the people will see that they need not vote for this
or that party, leaving all judgment to them and relying on their promises, but
that they can judge independently and elect candidates of their own choice from
among themselves. These will be independent candidates; that is to say, they
will not depend for their election on any political party, and therefore they
can depend on their own conscience and be responsible to the people directly.
That will do away with the evils of party politics and the scramble for power
and its demagogy and corruption.” (3)
2. (b) “But once the precondition
is created, that every citizen and voter will have a minimum degree of
intelligent understanding and the ability to think and judge for himself, then
this helplessness and hopelessness of the individuals will disappear; they can
create local democracies of their own. The voters need no longer remain
scattered like isolated atoms. They can organize themselves on a local scale
into People’s Committees, and function as local republics, in which direct
democracy is possible. Then at the time of elections, these people will no
longer have to vote for anybody coming from outside; they will not only discuss
in their committees the merits of candidates
presented to them for taking or leaving, but nominate their own
candidates from among themselves. To create this condition is the most
important political activity.” (4)
3. (a) “For this work, we need not
wait for an election. We select one constituency. 20 or 25 people there will
come to feel the necessity of devising new forms of political practice, because
they are dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. They resolve to make
an experiment. They begin by creating the precondition for Democracy by
spreading education among the people. At a later stage, it should be possible
to call a number of local conferences in a constituency and elect delegates
from them to a conference of the entire constituency. And at the election time,
when all parties come and offer their candidates, the people’s committee may
decide to vote for none of those party candidates, but elect one from among
themselves as their candidate, and the people will vote for him. The person who
will be thus elected and go to the Parliament, will not be responsible to any
existing political party machinery. He will be and remain responsible to his
local Democracy, of which he himself is a part; he will be directly responsible
to the people who sent him to the Parliament; he will not have to act on the
behests and discipline of any extraneous
authority, and he will have to report to and inform his fellow- citizens in his
constituency about all his actions and the problems of the wider community, and
take his mandate from them alone in all matters and act accordingly to his best
ability and conscience.” (5)
3. (b) “This process may take a
long time. That is the common objection against it. But once we make the choice
and begin moving in the new direction, it is not really such a long way as it
appears to be. The precondition is to discard the traditional notion of human
nature, and to know that it is neither evil nor divine, but that man is
essentially rational; that, given the opportunity, every human being is capable
of thinking for himself, judging right and wrong, making judgments and acting
accordingly. Unless by his own nature, as a biological being, man was capable
of thinking rationally and behaving morally, it would be a vain dream to
visualize a free, just and harmonious social order. For the time being, it is
true that the common people are illiterate; they may not be able to govern
country. But at the same time, is it not a fact, that left to themselves, even
the most ignorant peasants can manage their affairs better than our present
government? The distrust for the ability of the common people to think for
themselves and take care of themselves is only a pretext for seizing power in
their name and abusing that power to suppress their liberty.” (6)
4. (a) “In the next elections we
may not yet get rid of the bad effects of party politics. But we may already
help in the appearance of a considerable number of independent candidates who
in the assemblies will not be subjected to the whip of the parties, whether in
power or in opposition, but who can raise the voice of the people inside the
parliaments.”(7)
4.
(b) “ Thus, while the big parties may fight for power among themselves, there
will be a few people to express the will of the people without reservations and
extraneous contingent considerations of fear or favor. Their voice, in its turn,
will quicken the consciousness of the people outside who follow the proceedings
in the assemblies. And what is more, after the elections, independent candidates,
who depend directly on the people of their locality for their election, cannot
forget their constituencies but must keep constantly in touch with them for
their mandate and support. Also those Humanists who have stimulated this
political awakening in the constituency will not leave the voters to relapse in
to apathy after elections, but constantly remind them of their rights and
responsibilities. They worked in their constituency not to be elected and then
go away to the centres of power, but they remain there with the sole function
of educating the people and helping them establish a democratic local republic.
In these local republics, it is possible to have direct democracy, and their
functions can be expanded as the citizens grow increasingly discriminating and
conscious. In them, power and sovereignty will remain in the hands of the
people themselves, and in this way the precondition for a government of the people
and by the people will be created. Because ultimately the nature of the basic
units will determine the structure of the whole State built upon them. A
democratic State in a large country is possible only on the basis of such small
organized local democracies which can remove the sense of helplessness of the
individual citizens, and through which alone individual voters can exercise
control over the State by means of an intelligent active public opinion. To
promote this is the most effective practice of New Humanism in the political
field.” (8)
5.
(a) “Even if elections are by universal suffrage, and the executive is also
elected, democracy will still remain a formality. Delegation of power, even for
a limited period, stultifies democracy. Government for the people can never be
fully a Government of the people and by the people, and the people can have a
hand in the Government of the country only when the pyramidal structure of the State
will be raised on a foundation of organized local democracy. The primary
function of the latter will be to make individual citizens fully conscious of
their sovereign right and enable them to exercise the right intelligently. The
broad basis of the democratic state, coinciding with the entire society, will
be composed of a network of political schools, so to say. The right of recall
and referendum will enable organized local democracy to wield a direct and
effective control of the entire state machinery. They alone will have the right
to nominate candidates for election. Democracy will be placed above parties
representing collective egos. Individual men will have the chance of being
recognized. Party loyalty and party patronage or other forms of nepotism will
no longer eclipse intellectual independence, moral integrity and detached
wisdom.” (9)
5.
(b) “Such an atmosphere will foster intellectual independence dedicated to the
cause of making human values triumph. That moral excellence alone can hold a
community together without sacrificing the individual on the altar of the
collective ego, be it the nation or the class. People possessed of that great
virtue will command the respect of an intelligent public, and be recognized as
the leaders of society automatically, so to say. Demagogy will be placed under
a heavy discount. Mechanical counting of heads will cease to be the criterion
of democracy. Democratic practice will not be reduced to periodical elections.”
(10)
5.
(c) “It
will be some time before reoriented democracy can be the master of the
situation. In the transition period, the Constitution should provide for
creative genius, intellectual detachment and moral integrity occupying a high
place in the state, so as to advise, guide and influence the operation of executive
power. In the transition period, democracy must be elective as well as
selective. Until the intellectual and moral level of the entire community is
raised considerably, election alone cannot possibly bring its best elements to
the forefront, and unless the available intellectual detachment and moral
integrity are brought to bear on the situation, democratic regimes cannot serve
the purpose of promoting freedom.” (11)
6. (a) “At election times, all parties go to the
people and make promises; they all know that not half of their promises can be
fulfilled; but they rely on the fact that the voters cannot understand, and
therefore, can be duped. Can that state
of affairs not be changed? It can be. To change this state of affairs is the
first necessity, the biggest task for anybody who wishes to participate in
politics – not for selfish ends. One need not go to the people only to catch
their votes. To help them cast their votes intelligently would be an immensely more
important work. The electorate should be asked to examine the programmes of all
the parties, to see if the promises can be fulfilled or, if fulfilled will
really improve matters. But this new political practice presupposes a radical
change in the idea of human nature. It is an appeal to reason, which
presupposes the belief that man is a rational being. Political practice is
guided by the notion that the ordinary man cannot think for himself; therefore
he must be persuaded to follow parties and politicians. Since this unnatural
relation between the people, the parties and politicians constitutes the
foundation of what is called party politics, the latter prevents the people
even to think for themselves. Politics is not only a scramble for power, but competition
in all manner of questionable practices. (12)
6. (b) “The position may appear to be a vicious
circle. But there is a way out, which party politicians would not take, because
that would mean the end of their days. Appeal to reason is the way out. And modern
science indicates the way. Science teaches that human nature is not to believe,
but to enquire, that human nature is rational. It is true that the rational
nature of man has been buried very deep.
But being the essence of human nature, it can be recovered. Let some
people have the conviction and the courage to act accordingly. Let them raise
political practice on the level of reason and intelligence. I have no doubt the
appeal to reason will find a response. The new politics will bear fruit sooner
than one dares imagine; only, the measure of success will not be power, but
gradual disappearance of that evil. Even a few people can lay down a solid foundation
of democracy and freedom, if they forgo the quest for power, do not participate
in the scramble; do not ask for the vote of the people to rule in their name;
but, on the contrary, remind the voters of their human dignity, capacity to
think and to act creatively.” (13)
6. (c) “Thus the electorate will gradually become
critical and discriminating; the time will come when the voters of a locality
will tell the candidates of all parties to leave them alone; amongst themselves
they will find men in whom they can have confidence and who will remain
responsible to them between two elections. Once that happens, the end of the
party system will begin, and with the parties, the main cause for concentration
of power will disappear. In the process, we shall already have laid down the
foundation of a decentralized State of local republics, which will combine all
functions of the State as they affect the local life. National culture,
national economy and national political institutions will be cast on the
pattern of the functions of these local republics; power will remain with them,
to be wielded directly by the individual members of small communities. Being
thus reared upon a broad foundation of direct democracies, the State will be
really democratic. Usurpation of power will be out of the question. Thus, a
pluralistic modern society can be built up at the same time while doing away
with centralization of power, political and economic.” (14)
Ref:
(1) P
59 : Politics Power and Parties, M.N. Roy; 1981,
Ajanta Publications(India), Jawahar
Nagar, Delhi - 110007.
(2) P
175 : ibid.
(3) P 175:
ibid.
(4) Pp 59, 60: ibid.
(5) P 60: ibid.
(6) P 185, ibid.
(7) Pp 175,176: ibid.
(8) P 176, ibid.
(9) P 167, New Orientation, M.N. Roy; 1982, Ajanta Publications(India), Jawahar
Nagar, Delhi - 110007.
(10)
ibid.
(11)
Pp 167, 168: ibid.
(12)
Pp 185, Politics Power and Parties,
M.N. Roy; 1981, Ajanta Publications(India), Jawahar Nagar,
Delhi - 110007.
(13)
P 186, ibid.
(14)
P 187, ibid.
