Tiered Democratic Governance
An Alternative to Western Democracy
My maternal grandfather was of the peasant classes in Bukovina, Ukraine. After the tumult of World War I and the Russian Civil War, he experienced a change of governance in which he had no say. He saw the transition merely as one group of elites being replaced another group of elites. As a young man, he envisioned more opportunity and freedom — and immigrated to Canada in 1922. When he gained his Canadian citizenship, he had the right to vote out governments which he and many other Canadians saw as ineffective.
In western democracies, the periodic elections have been a great social engineering tool for citizens to express their anger when a government becomes out of touch with the people they govern. Hence, those who aspire for public office in western democracies must consider the needs and aspirations of a significant minority — if not majority — of citizens to earn the legitimacy to govern. The rulers of Bukovina in early 20th century were not subject to this social force.
For much of the 20th century, citizens in western democracies were thankful for their periodic elections. They needed only compare themselves to the parts of the world without this opportunity: they realized that their life was indeed better under western democracy. Because of this simple comparison, there was no…
