Democracy: The End?

[curtisakre]

In class you mentioned that people say democracy is dying, and that some think we need a new system. I think that is really stupid because, as Winston Churchill said, “It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” I think if society tries to rid itself of democracy…it wouldn’t work. Because people of the 21st century have seen the ups and downs of democracy and we have either lived during or have heard about the problems with Hitler’s Germany, or the Soviet Union, etc. If a revolution happens and a political system changes from democracy to communism, or fascism, or maybe a monarchy, it just won’t work. People have seen the good side of democracy and it will come back. We need to learn from history. People have tried to change things in the past but everything ends up the same. Whoever takes over is destined to become corrupt, some times in big ways, sometimes small, but corrupt nonetheless. Pete Townshend said it best in the last line of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

[Mr. Delainey]

Curtis there's a political theorist named Georges Sorel who actually articulated exactly what you have done in your post.

Basically Sorel observed that whenever a revolution occured the old elite were thrown out and replaced by a new order (regime). However, over time members of this new order became a new elite (and the same problems with corruption, etc. occured again). So Sorel actually argued that something he called "syndacalism" be practiced; that is, society must be continually remade through revolution in order to prevent any elite from ever firmly taking root.

I'm not sure how he planned to pull this off. People usually have to be pushed pretty far to participate in a revolution; and revolutions tend to be violent and can set a society back (in as much as they can wipe away corruption). An interesting though nonetheless...though I doubt its actually practicable in the real world.