10 extra reasons democracy fails
As a teenager, I strongly believed in democracy. I believed that we owed our freedom, prosperity and peace to democracy and that it was the best system imaginable. However, when I looked into it later on, I came to very different insights.
I have incorporated these insights into Beyond Democracy (2012, co-authored with Karel Beckman). But since then, I’ve gained a lot of new insights, and I’ve also incorporated them into this series. Reasons 11–20 are below, reasons 1–10 you find here.
11. Democracy is not the Wisdom of the Crowd
When a random group of people has to guess how many marbles a particular jar contains, it turns out that the average of all estimates is very close to the actual number. This phenomenon is called the Wisdom of the Crowd.
Many people think that democracy makes use of that same magical effect, but unfortunately that is not the case. Contrary to the example of the jar, people in a democracy do not share the same objective. They often have opposing goals and wishes. People mainly vote in their own self-interest, which is often quite different from everyone else. One wants to go left, the other wants to go to the right. That does not mean that the reasonable and correct direction is straight ahead.
12. Democracy is the Tragedy of the Commons
A common is a shared grassland on which farmers can let their livestock graze. The problem it brings up, is that everyone wants to add their own cows to the common in order to maximize their own advantage. As a result, the meadow soon becomes overgrazed.
Democracy works in a similar way. In a democracy, everyone tries to put their personal goals and expenses on the collective tab. It’s like going out for dinner with a hundred people and deciding in advance to divide the bill evenly. Ordering a 10 dollar dessert would only add 10 cents to one’s individual expenses. So everyone has a strong incentive to order more than he would normally do on his own.
13. Even the majority doesn’t get what it voted for
One would expect that in a democracy, what the vast majority wants will certainly happen. But that’s incorrect. The vast majority of voters, for example, constantly demand better government education.
But when the education sector is managed by the government, the power of the direct stakeholders, students, parents and teachers, is limited and the power of administrators is increased.
This leads to a constant stream of ministry decrees that describe in detail how education should be shaped, down to the smallest schools and municipalities. The problems this creates are combated with even more bureaucracy. Government officials spend other people’s money, which reduces overall efficiency. Moreover, they do not experience the negative consequences of their own decisions. Higher costs, lower quality and frustrated parents, teachers and pupils are therefore unavoidable.
14. Elections change little
Imagine that the people are very dissatisfied with their government and massively vote for a radical new party that subsequently comes to power. Could that party fundamentally change policies then? Probably not.
Keep in mind that the incumbent mayors, trade union leaders, diplomats, departmental administrators, TV stations, councils, institutes and universities still have the old political colours and will likely remain true to them. After all, they know that with a little resistance or lack of cooperation, the newly elected politicians will not be able to achieve much and therefore lose future elections. It is difficult for the new rulers to dismiss them because it’s difficult to quickly hire experienced individuals from within your own ranks. In a few years time, the former politicians will be in power again, and then it would be best not to be known as a defector. In democracies, therefore, the large parties are usually in power for decades in a row.
15. Politicians have a common interest
Another reason why elections change little is because the different parties have similar objectives; they all have the same interest, namely their self-interest. Companies follow that self-interest too, of course, but the difference is that if companies do not serve their own interests by serving that of the customer, customers can easily take their business somewhere else.
It’s similar to the hens on a chicken farm who are allowed to elect a new chicken farmer. Whoever is elected chicken farmer has not changed his interest, he still wants the maximum yield from the chickens and will exploit them to the max. With ‘good intentions’, of course.
16. It pays for voters to remain ignorant
Your individual voice has a negligible influence. So why would you spend hundreds of hours studying various political positions? As a result, many citizens choose the candidate with the most attractive appearance, the nicest chat or the best promises. Elections have thus become a competition between Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus: whoever promises the most wins.
People behave much more wisely as consumers than as voters. As consumers, we spend our own money. We therefore experience it immediately when we let ourselves be misguided by smooth sales pitches and not by product quality and price. But as a voter you can vote without having to worry about spendthrift policies, because there is little chance that your individual vote will be decisive. Moreover, the adverse effects of spendthrift policies will be spread over a large number of citizens.
17. Democracy turns civilians into sheep
Democracy means ‘government by the people’. In other words, we are governing ourselves. This misconception has ensured that citizens accept the democratic results like sheep, no matter how oppressive. Tax increases, the EU, the euro, military interventions, the surveillance state? Apparently the people wanted that, because the decisions were taken democratically. But during the rare referendums that are held, it is usually clear how much the will of the people deviates from the will of the government.
Because of this delusion of ‘governing ourselves’ and because of the theoretical possibility that a citizen can become a ruler himself, he is no longer critical of his rulers. Moreover, he does not think that the state power is too great, but that it he or his favorite party should control it. And so the state power grew steadily. A minor increase of the tax burden led to the American Revolution in 1776, but the current 40% of government spending leads to some grumbling. Is democracy perhaps the opium for the people?
18. The ignorant constitute the majority
By definition, only a small part of the population excels. Outstanding people are a small minority and the vast majority are mediocre or downright bad when it comes to, for example, characteristics such as knowledge, responsibility, intelligence or diligence.
In a democracy, the winning argument is not based on logic, fact or morality, but on the number of supporters. Politicians would therefore be well advised not to appeal to the intelligent minds, but to the ignorance of the masses, if they want to win elections. So they promise beautiful things that are unfeasible or even harmful, such as ‘free’ education or an increase in the minimum wage.
Fortunately, in business, science and sport, where there is no democracy, those who excel are in charge and create progress.
19. Democracy leads to socialism
Karl Marx said: ‘Democracy is the way to socialism’. The US Socialist Party also states: ‘Democracy and socialism are one and indivisible’.
Democracy is a great redistribution machine that reinforces itself. After all, people who receive benefits vote in favour of bigger benefits. These welfare recipients can also spend their free time on political activism and demonstrations. Civil servants usually vote in favour of their employer, i.e. a more powerful government, which leads to even more civil servants. That is why it is not surprising that Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, was remarkably popular in the 2016 U.S. pre-elections, something that would have been unthinkable a century ago.
20. Democracy leads to less freedom
Democracy and freedom are often mentioned in the same breath. But citizens in our democracy do not enjoy freedom of education, health care, housing, contract, association (anti-discrimination laws) or profession (license requirements). The government tells us what employees must earn through minimum wage laws, when we can hire or dismiss someone, how much we pay for our health care premiums and what we gets (or do not get) in return for it, what the curriculum is at our schools and who is allowed to work there.
Every day, our freedoms are increasingly restricted by “much-needed” new legislation. We already have to surrender around half of our income to the state. The freedom we enjoy is the right to protest against our lack of freedom.
Buy the book and learn more at beyonddemocracy.net
Frank Karsten is co-author of Beyond Democracy and co-founder of Mises Netherlands. In 2019 he published The DiscriminationMyth.
