Liberal Democracy II

I made the claim that our society under liberal democracy is the most successful ever. I was challenged on that statement. The challenger said that our society and liberal democracy have not been around long enough for us to judge whether it is the most successful or not. She wrote that “The longevity of Chinese society appears to have a pretty good claim for ‘most successful ever’ and they don't appear to have needed capitalism nor democracy to achieve this”.

I have to define what I mean by successful.

I see liberal democracy as the most successful form of human governance ever because it is the only one left standing. Its last major rival was communism whose reign and influence ended in the 1980s. No new alternatives have appeared since to challenge it, which means to me there is nowhere else for human governance to go. Liberal democracy is the culmination of centuries of experimentations on how to ideally govern humankind. From its beginning humankind has steadily grown closer and more connected. In its connectedness humankind has needed a uniform type of governance. Liberal democracy is with us because it is the only one up to that task. The fact that liberal democracy has not been fully implemented around the world is another matter. That is not a reflection on its viability or legitimacy. However, liberal democracy will always be a work in progress. That is the beauty of this system, that it is always growing and redefining itself so as to reflect the changing needs and aspirations of society, like no other system before. It is not a perfect system but considering the disposition and idiosyncrasies of humankind it is the best that can be had.

Another reason why it is the most successful is because it has empowered the most people. Liberal democracy has empowered more people with the bestowing of freedom and the right to purse self-interests than any system before. China may be a successful civilization but it rarely empowered anybody, until now. In embracing capitalism, China today is slowly empowering its citizens with the right to pursue their own self-interests, to be materialistic and property owners. With private property will follow democratic reforms, as it has in the West. It is already happening. The Chinese constitution was changed recently to guarantee some property rights. The Chinese are also becoming more vocal and demanding in their materialism. Many with means are now traveling freely and seeing the world, unlike before. That is success.

Liberal democracy is slowly imposing itself on China and making a difference. With the recent outbreaks of SARS and bird flue China has been forced to be more open to the world because it is no longer an isolated state. If it wants to continue to trade with the rest of the world and maintain its economy it has to be transparent on such matters as health. Ironically, with this new and necessary transparency its people are slowly gaining democracy because it opens a dialog between the Chinese government and its people. In such matters the government has to get the cooperation of its people and that procedure in itself is democratizing. Admittedly it is happening in baby steps. Nevertheless, it is happening.

Ironically, as China develops it will become more polluted and its citizens will gain more control over their lives. Citizens will demand more pollution controls, better health care and truthful answers. Those demands will translate into their having a greater voice in the running the country and their gaining a more accountable, transparent government.

Some people will ask, what is so great about empowering people? It’s a recipe for a more dysfunctional society, they’ll say. That’s an old argument. Instead, empowerment is one way of discouraging dictatorships. Moreover, from an economic stand point it is a win-win situation. For instance, it is from the empowerment of people to pursue self-interests that society finds the solutions to its needs and problems. (It is empowered individuals who discover the technologies and techniques that keep humanity alive and healthy, not governments.) In the past, China, under its total dictatorship, relied on committee rule to find and develop the solutions it needed to continue. In the long run that was a disaster. In time, though, some insightful Chinese leaders realized that the state alone could not meet the needs of its people and solve the problems the modern world imposed on them. They turned to capitalism to do that job, a first step towards liberal democracy.