Can Democracy be Preserved?

Are our brains not as well suited for democratic participation, as one would expect? Rick Shenkman, author of Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics, highlights some arguments from Shawn Rosenberg, who is decidedly pessimistic about democracy's future prospects. In a speech to the International Society of Political Psychologists in Lisbon, Rosenberg insisted to the group that despite what autocratic leaders might do to undermine democracy, citizens hold the real blame. Shenkman notes Rosenberg's reasoning:

Democracy is hard work. And as society's "elites" - experts and public figures who help those around them navigate the heavy responsibilities that come with self-rule - have increasingly been sidelined, citizens have proved ill equipped cognitively and emotionally to run a well-functioning democracy. As a consequence, the center has collapsed and millions of frustrated and angst-filled voters have turned in desperation to right wing populists. 

His prediction? "In well-established democracies like the United States, democratic governance will continue its inexorable decline and will finally fail."

Presently, excessive centralization as to how knowledge gets utilized (in the U.S.), only makes it more difficult to bring the opinions of rational citizens to the table. Democracy is not so much problematic as a societal concept; but rather, because of the unevenness in its application, as special interests continue to capture means of knowledge based production. Since the reality of lost production rights has not been addressed, citizens vote instead for access to service production outcomes. Indeed, many understandably believe this to be their only option, even if it often does not make sense. Worse, the ongoing struggle for quality services access is based on supply side means which were structured as secondary markets for wealth creation.

In all of this, education has mostly been intended as a sorting mechanism for a meritocratic elite. If democracy is to be preserved, education needs to become actual engagement in the workplaces and consumption choices of a modern economy, especially in left behind communities. Yet the danger now, is that formal education is questioned regarding its true applicability for citizen majorities. These are the wrong arguments, for education needs to be transformed into economic integration at all levels of society. Losses in knowledge based production rights have proven particularly difficult for countless smaller cities and communities, since it leaves them ill positioned to take part in a 21st century economy.

We have to be careful going forward, once people in positions of power start to reason that most citizens aren't "smart" enough for democratic engagement. That's not so much a natural fact of life, as something that special interests have made more prevalent over time, in their attempts to limit the settings by which meaningful discourse and economic action take place. Such limits create perceptions of genius scarcity, not to mention an imagined scarcity of citizens deemed capable of contributing to societal well being. One's ability to take part in knowledge based work has gradually become more dependent on merit and social position. Only consider how this plays into progressive attitudes as well, as elites denigrate rural citizens who instinctively rebel at being left in powerless positions. Ultimately, preserving democracy means creating new and productive means of economic engagement, for the regions and individuals now stranded along society's periphery.

Fortunately there are still ways that authoritarian impulses might be overcome. However, the most promising approach would be for prosperous regions to actively reach out and become more supportive of regions and communities along society's periphery. New organizational patterns for applied knowledge would allow millions more to take part, in work which also happens to be conducive to the creation of responsible and thoughtful citizens. By taking a decentralized approach to new services generation, small communities would also contribute to a larger whole, by creating new wealth and economic vitality.

Democracies could be preserved, via local forms of direct democracy which align time value for the generation of new service markets. Democracies could still prove sustainable long term, should policy makers gain the courage to restore knowledge production means to the many, not just the few. Future prosperity may well depend on it. There is plenty of logic in augmenting knowledge production means, instead of constantly struggling over knowledge production outcomes.