Democracy is about institutionalisation of values

Neera Chandhoke

Political Scientist

DeMOCRACY possesses many virtues. But it has also shown an uncanny propensity to tolerate deep-rooted contradictions: terrible social and economic inequality exists alongside formal political equality; appalling hate speech coexists with rhetorical obeisance to accommodation of diversity; and above all, we see a relentless quest for power at the expense of people’s rights. Yet, leaders continue to glorify our flawed democracy despite caste and class inequalities, hounding of minorities, violence against women and the sight of our fellow citizens showing their diseased or mutilated limbs to beg for alms at road crossings.

We should ask members of Scheduled Castes who have been subjected to horrifying discrimination, the Scheduled Tribes and minorities who are ritually humiliated, women who carry ineradicable scars of violence and poor children who will never know what it means to live a good life — do they live in a democratic society? They would turn around and ask us what democracy means. This is the paramount question that should confront right-thinking Indians. What is democracy, after all? Just elections that catapult conceited politicians to unthinkable heights of power, not to better the lives of the people who voted for them, but for their self-aggrandisement?

We need to clarify the notion of democracy. A good place to begin is the funeral oration delivered by Pericles, a great statesman of ancient Athens. The speech was immortalised by Thucydides in History of the Peloponnesian War. The war (431-404 BCE) ended with the defeat of democratic Athens at the hands of a monarchical Sparta. Thucydides reportedly admitted that the speech was based on his own experience of listening to one of the greatest orators of Athens. But no matter, the ideas in the speech are infinitely more important than the exact rendition and historical precision. So, let us concentrate on the meaning that Pericles gave to democracy that was initiated in Athens around 500 BCE.

The famous speech by Pericles was delivered at a mass burial of fallen soldiers after the first year of the war. The funeral oration, which is central to the work of Thucydides, offered an opportunity to skilled orators to mourn warriors who had given their life for the country, acknowledge the contribution of ancestors to the making of Athenian culture democracy, freedom and justice, and defend democracy that gave an edge to Athenians over Spartans.

Pericles’ celebration of democracy has inspired countless scholars and leaders to conceptualise the virtues of democracy.

We should, said Pericles, remember and honour our ancestors who struggled to give us a free state and a great empire. “We are called a democracy because power is in the hands of the many, not in the hands of a few. Our government does not copy our neighbours because we have equal justice for all. Our citizens are rewarded for merit, and exceptional citizens are appointed to the government. We are also free to do as we like in our private business. We trust one another and are not angered by a neighbour if he does what he likes. A man may help his country even if he is poor. We are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the authority and law. We work to protect the injured from those that would do them harm.” Such is the city for which our ancestors fought, he said; they fell in the name of a noble cause.

The chief characteristics of democracy, according to Pericles, are: prevention of concentration of power in the hands of the few, equal justice for all, rewards for the meritorious, freedom to do as we like in our private lives, trust between citizens, helping others, tolerance for others’ opinion, respect for authority and law, and protection of the vulnerable. There is no mention of apolitical notions of governance, national security or law and order, even though Athens was in the first year of a prolonged war.

But we also see the main contradiction that plagues democracy. Democracy was born in Athens, but privileges of democratic citizenship were reserved for Athenian-born men. Women, slaves and men born in other countries did not have citizenship rights. This contradiction continued right up till the advent of modern democracies in France, the US and the UK. Women initially were not granted the right to vote.

We must also recognise that freedom and equality carry the kind of resonance few political concepts do. They have become, over time, the rallying cry of

the struggle for equality, freedom and justice by Dalits, African Americans, women, the colonised, the working classes and immigrants. The value of democracy is condensed in these concepts; that is why they form the central plank of social struggle.

Equally significantly, Pericles’ address reinforced the right to privacy. No state that interferes in the private domain without due cause can be called a democracy. He spoke of tolerance and of the need to protect the vulnerable. Above all, Pericles spoke of solidarity as a defining feature of democracy. The oration enables us to realise that elections are but a moment in the life of democracy. Democracy is about the institutionalisation of values outlined in this oration.

It’s time we realised that democracy has much more to it than elections. Elections bring an elite to power. In history, democratic imagination has inspired struggles for emancipation from absolute power.

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