Member-only story
Two Cheers for Democracy: Why Decentralisation is Vital for Youth in Politics
“So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three.” — E.M. Forster.
Democracy, we are told, is the government of the people, by the people, for the people. At its best, it protects civil and religious liberties, holds governments to account and allows citizens to play a central role in the political process. At its worst, it is an abstract concept which alienates entire classes of society — often the poor, the youth and the uneducated. It can be a system in which tiny sectors enjoy a veto over entire fields of policy, an elite few are taken seriously and the majority are left nursing empty promises. Indeed, poorly managed, it can enable a concentration of power, the existence of unsympathetic politicians and political parties whose main ambition is being a lesser evil than the next. Oftentimes the strength of any democracy is determined by the scope in which the general public holds and exercises power: by the extent of decentralisation and political accountability. In turn, that scope is often determined by the extent in which the electoral system fosters voter participation and effectively affords ‘power to the people’.
