Most of those people believe ordinary people are not very smart and, because of that, they need “leaders”; people with special vision, people who “know the way”.
It is a lot of baloney, but like baloney itself, and many other worthless things; some marketing tricks can fool most people most of the time.
All of them say they believe in democracy, but they do not; democracy is “rule by the people themselves”, not by elected representatives.
Most Elected politicians, prefer representative democracy, they do not like direct democracy. If you press them, they will perform many verbal pirouettes to convince you with arguments like “the population is too large to involve them in decisions”, “most issues are too complex, understanding them requires efforts most people do not have the time to make”, “there is a danger demagogues will fool the people”, etc., etc.
The reality is that democracy is “government by the people” and there are plenty of ways to have direct democracy, even in the largest countries.
Some will tell you representative democracy is democracy because the people decide which party is in power, but changing the party in power does not change the essence of the system; regardless of who governs, in a representative democray, those in power continue to make all the key decisions, the voters do not make the decisions, the voters do not govern, they just elect politicians.
For now, the population of representative democracies supports representative democracy, but the number is dropping, fast. Rapidly, the numbers of those who know about direct democracy is growing; the big switch to direct democracy will happen, it is inevitable.
Common sense also makes it obvious we are ready for direct democracy; if the voters are adult enough to hold a job, raise a family, save to buy a house, pay our loans and mortgages, elect politicians etc., we are also adult enough to decide by ourselves if taxes should be raised, if we need new roads, if we should have universal health coverage, if the country should sign a treaty, belong to an international organisation, what the educational system we need, etc.
Humanity is fortunate to have two nations who have demonstrated direct democracy works better, that citizens, not only do not need to elect “leaders with vision” to have a successful nation, they build a better nation without such leaders.
The first of such people were the Ancient Greeks; they invented democracy, direct democracy. To them, representative democracy would not be democracy at all. Representative democracy is not democracy and should not be called democracy. “Representative democracy” is another verbal pirouette.
The other people who do not need “visionary leaders”, “prophets” and other “great men”, are the Swiss. The Swiss are here, with us and, in the modern World, “next door” to you and me.
Anyone can study the Swiss system, just click “direct democracy” or Swiss direct democracy”, in almost any language and examine what pops up in Internet.
The Swiss used to have representative democracy too, but one day, as a result of another pandemic, they decided they would govern Switzerland themselves, not the elected representatives.
Formally, the Swiss have not done away with representative democracy; they elect representatives, have a parliament and a government made up by politicians, but the Swiss have introduced a key difference; the people have the final say on everything the elected representatives and the executive want to do, and the people also propose and make changes to policies, laws and even the constitution.
For example, the coming March 7, 2021, the Swiss people will decide three issues that in other countries are decided by the elected representatives, not by the people; unless the people take to the streets and impresses-scare the elected representatives into listening.
On the 7th of March, Swiss voters decide if a commercial treaty with Indonesia goes forward, on the electronic ID, and also on the legality of covering the face in public places.
Swiss politicians can recommend to voters to accept or reject the proposals but that is all the power they have. Quite different from your country, right?
If the Ancient Greeks 2500 years ago, and the Swiss now, do not need “leaders” who decide and have more power than the voters, is it not time the rest of us have the same rights and power ? I believe it is time.
But to change things we will have to do more than complain about the politicians; we will have to pressure them until the politicians have no choice but to bring direct democracy to our countries; that is exactly like it happened in Switzerland.
The time has arrived to ignore what most elected politicians and elitists say about direct democracy.
Let us move forward!
Victor Lopez
