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According to Bob Dylan, ‘The times they are a’changing’, with democratic elections due here in Austria at the end of September and over there in the States in November.
A question: ‘Can Democracy be learned through education?’
In the early 20thc. John Dewey saw education as an integral part of the democratic process. He proposed that an educated population is able to exercise critical social and personal judgement. That in turn promotes democratic values that are best suited to large and culturally diverse societies.
Jürgen Habermas has since argued that the value of education may lie in the insight it gives people into their oppressed states. Education also gives them the language for communicating and sharing their hopes ….and fears…..….such as fears of democracy deteriorating into chaos and anarchy. Plato, in Part 8 of his ‘Republic’ , focuses on the central importance of education of the Philosopher-Ruler. Otherwise, ‘democracy passes into despotism’.
How well developed are the critical and reflective faculties of that self-styled ‘Volkskanzler’ Herbert Kickl, we wonder?
Political authority can be achieved democratically provided each person enjoys equal political rights and that the interests of the people are safeguarded provided they have the last word in making their representatives accountable.
But, if liberal democracy is the best way to make political decisions, why not make it a reality by letting the people themselves decide major questions directly? For example, through holding a referendum. Like Brexit in June 2016? Help! No.
Are all citizens competent enough to make such important decisions? In his book ‘On Liberty’ (1859), John Stuart Mill also points to the danger of ‘the tyranny of the majority’.
George Bernard Shaw, in his play ‘Man and Superman’, warns us: “Democracy substitutes election (by the incompetent many) for appointment by the corrupt few.”
So, does the winner ‘take it all’? Sadly so. According to Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
‘Direct Democracy’ is what the Freedomites, the FPOE, want in Austria: ‘Volksinitiativen’ and ‘Volksbegehren’ that by-pass parliamentary procedures. Following a populist campaign, 250,000 signatures on a petition would be enough to hold a referendum or plebiscite on a particular issue or even depose a complete government. Hitler achieved that in 1933. Can we assume Herbert Kickl has studied history? Just how well educated, well equipped with critical intelligence, is this Kickl? Or is it all political know-how and expediency on his part, the self-styled future ‘Volkskanzler’?
Unless we hold fast to the idea that political authority must finally rest with the whole body of responsible citizens, not just the disenchanted ignorant few, we may end up being devoured by the lions who rule us. But it IS now alarming that growing disinterest in politics has led to a reduction in the numbers of those who actually vote. US journalist H.L. Mencken wrote: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Let’s hope that on September 29 there is a large turn-out of critically intelligent voters in Austria.
Education is vitally important in encouraging the democratic process. The NEOs here in Austria are arguing that ‘Democracy’, not simply ‘Politische Bildung’, should become a school-subject in the curriculum, instead of Religious Instruction. In the second part of this article I offer a practical example.
