Yay, the time I have been waiting for has finally arrived. My purpose has returned, Im glowing and I am once again actively studying Australian Politics. Even though I am constantly looking for 'breaking stories' or new news articles, I love that I am back inside a politics classroom once again. Hello highlighters, sticky notes, books, textbooks and pens.
Reading the course notes for first year Political Studies, the immediate weeks ahead are spent looking at democracy, what it is, and unpacking left and right winged views. Not probably as fascinating as looking at the current Victorian Parliament with a new change in Premier's and nor is it probably as exciting as examining the new South Australian Labor branding but it is a good start I guess. All the textbooks I can currently find, start out posing the question "why study politics?" and go on to say things like "its all around you" and "It's not as boring as you think". I guess those who are not quite as obsessed as some people need some help getting excited about the prospect of 3 x 50minute 'lessons' a week, on the subject.
A question I have come across in my readings is, In a perfect world, what would a democracy look like to you? I asked a friend of mine and they said it would be exactly like communism. Why? Because everybody would be equal, just taking what they need, rather than what they maybe want. I did agree with them at the time, but thinking back I am not completely sure. Sure there would be a level of equality amongst all the participants within the community governed by this so called 'democracy' but at the same time, I am not sure communism would always ensue. According to David Beetham in his book Democracy, Democracy is "understood as a procedure for taking decisions in any group, association or society, whereby all members have an equal right to have a say and to make their opinions count." Rather implying that all participating members of said democratic community have the EQUAL RIGHT to have their opinions counted, not necessarily to be in the majority.
In Australia and in most developed nations which call themselves democratic in Government, Citizens over a certain age have the option or are forced to vote, making their opinions heard by a higher power. Communism on the other hand is devoid of having a higher power IE: a Government at any level. In many cases Communism has proved unsuccessful, none more so than the wonderful Animal Farm by George Orwell; Where the commandment of "All animals are equal" was eventually changed to "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," referring to the leaders having more authority than the common folk. Hence going back to what is a perfect democracy, is it where everybody has a say on every issue? To me that is justified with the words "in a perfect world", In a perfect world counting votes would be instantaneous and everybody could vote on every issue, with the need for politicians eradicated. Or is a perfect world referring to a world where there are no constraints as to being allowed to vote. Currently in most voting countries either, age, location, gender or race can severely effect your ability to cast a ballot, in a perfect democracy would this be a problem? Likewise in a perfect world illnesses and diseases would not exist, thereby creating an avenue to be even more democratic when it comes to decision making, because more of society would be voting. Does a perfect world automatically account to a higher voting population? Or turnout rate? Or does it simply mean more people having the OPTION of letting their opinions be heard.
But we must always take into account that even in a pure democratic environment not everyone will get what they desire. In Australia we say our Government is democratically elected, but a member in the House of Representatives may only have 51% of their constituencies vote, and the number (or quota) is smaller in the Senate. Would a perfect world force the elected officials (if we even had them) to be elected in with more than 51% of the vote? A perfect world is nice to imagine, and in the countless textbooks scattered around me the definition of a democracy is quite similar, democracy can also be in the eye of the beholder. How? The US election in 2000, the Right thought it was democratic, Bush had won enough votes for the media and officials to call it, but the left felt robbed.
Those who despise politics always say to me, "why can't they all get on? Its all a load of rubbish anyway" probably wish for a perfect world free of all things political, but then some of the people I admire would be out of work, so I am just going to leave you with my feelings of a perfect democracy. It would look like a place where One) voters make informed decisions and Two) factors like age, gender and race have no place when it comes to elections. But then again I do like Beetham's expression of democracy also.
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