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 desire or social force to change the system.
But something has changed in the past two decades. More and more citizens in western democracies are not happy with results of their elections. Like my grandfather in Bukovina after WW1, they are seeing any political changes merely as one group of elites being replaced by another group of elites. The opportunity to replace ineffective governments is no longer there. This breeds more cynicism and more apathy. How long can this trend continue before the citizenry no longer gives legitimacy to elected governments? What is the future for western democracy?
In this essay, I will describe 12 limitations of western democracy, a replacement system of democratic governance which addresses those 12 limitations, a new culture for that replacement system, a new check-and-balance, a new relationship between government and the citizen, and a transition process from western democracy to this alternative…
