Brian a Risman

The Lost Values of Democracy Brian a Risman

This work is one of concern and fear over the Threat to Democracy. Concern, because having been born and bred in a Democracy, I am seeing leaders flouting any belief in democratic principles. Whether on the left or the right, incumbents and candidates are denying election results. It has been a mantra that a new country does not become a democracy until its first government is defeated at the polls, and that they accept (sometimes unwillingly, but accepted nonetheless) the assumption of power by their political opponents. However, we are seeing, even in countries with a long history of democracy, treatment of the opposing party as an enemy, not as an opponent, and yes a worthy opponent. At one time, you rarely witnessed a losing candidate in an election refusing to concede their defeat. It was well accepted that the losing candidate would accept the verdict of the voters. At party leadership conventions, the candidate who came second in the race for party leader would come on stage and make a motion that the vote in favour of the new leader be made unanimous. No such thing nowadays - if, for example, the losing candidate is on a political extreme, he or she will demand to write the party platform, and basically be the party leader in everything but name only. Besides concern, I mention fear. The fear is when the opposing party is negated as a threat to the nation, the right of that party to contest the election is negated as well. That leads to Dictatorship. What happened? How did Democracy degenerate into a morass?The reason is that the value system of democracy has become absent from the body politic. This discussion, then, will explore what values need to be restored in that body politic. With that value system, the Citizenry and Authority will know how to protect that democracy.