It’s time to get real about what we expect from our democracy and ourselves.
Canada isn’t a democracy — not in the sense that many of us think it is. While we expect a system built for immediate response to our whims and full attention to our fickle demands, our democracy isn’t designed that way. Thus, when our political attention is temporarily piqued and we bother to engage in civic life, our imaginations get ahead of our political system, running wild with dreams of participatory democracy, instant change, and responsive and productive dialogue.
And when our fleeting desire to “get political” runs up against an unresponsive system, we are bound to feel disappointed, offended, or even scorned by our democracy. Part of the problem is our leaders and the political system: our politicians tend to gamble with our trust and lose it; contemporary governance structures can be groaning and complex to the point of being so arcane that even experts find themselves unable to comprehend them; and ordinary citizens are rarely called upon to do much more than vote.
But part of the problem is us. Our politicians are weak, but we don’t demand stronger ones. The system is complicated, but we make little effort to prioritize learning about it. And while we could build more time in our lives to engage as citizens, it doesn’t make our To-Do lists — after all, Homeland isn’t going to watch itself. Our problem is that the expectations we have for our democracy are divorced from the expectations we have of ourselves as citizens.
It’s important to make a distinction between being a citizen and being an individual, at least in a practical sense. Canada is a liberal democracy, which means that we privilege individual, negative rights — protection from being interfered with by the government. The word “liberal” roughly corresponds to what we do in our private lives — where and how we make a living, who we marry, what we do for with our free time, which YouTube videos we watch, and so on.
The word “democracy,” in a somewhat constrained sense, refers to collective self-rule, and indicates that, in theory, we all have a say in how we set up our society, how we decide what’s OK, and in choosing who will make policies and laws. In a broader sense, “democracy” also includes a series of requirements and character traits that make collective self-rule possible, such as reciprocity, openness, and civility.
Like the citizens of most Western liberal democracies, Canadians are great at being liberal and lousy at being democratic. We excel at individualism: we pursue wealth, speak our minds at the dinner table, and plan our lives and pursue our goals. When we’re required to be citizens, however, we fall short. Upwards of 40 per cent of us don’t bother to vote on the rare occasions we are called upon to do so. We seldom take our political complaints and demands beyond our private conversations, and we almost never effectively organize in a sustained, civil and effective way — activities required to bring about change in contemporary liberal democracies.
Political scientists spend a lot of time wondering why this is so. Are voters lazy? Stupid? Ignorant? Are the media partly to blame? Schools? Politicians? Video games and rap music? Or is it our brains? Are we just not wired to be citizens in a fast-paced, complicated world? Is it a mixture of all of the above?
While the jury is still out on these questions, a big part of the problem is that our system tends to work fairly well, for most of us, without our involvement. Part of the reason we’re such prolific liberals and such languid democrats is that we can afford to be. Since most of us live stable and comfortable lives, we’re generally fine with a trustee model of democracy, a model in which we elect representatives to do our dirty work, a model in which we occasionally check in on national issues, but quickly go back to our iPads and yoga classes, perhaps muttering epithets, when we realize either that resistance is futile or our own private lives are unlikely to be affected too much by whatever has caught our attention.
But issues facing Canada today require more than autopilot politics; and this requires that we move beyond mere individualism to become citizens through a sustained, deliberate effort. A warming planet, the growth of outrage amongst indigenous peoples and their allies, and the growing misery of marginalized groups are a few such issues. They serve as indicators that Canadians must demand more from not only their democratic representatives, but from themselves. These issues remind us that rather than adjusting the expectations we have for our democracy by lowering them, we should raise them while affirming our right and recognizing our need to become citizens.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: David Moscrop
Canada isn’t a democracy — not in the sense that many of us think it is. While we expect a system built for immediate response to our whims and full attention to our fickle demands, our democracy isn’t designed that way. Thus, when our political attention is temporarily piqued and we bother to engage in civic life, our imaginations get ahead of our political system, running wild with dreams of participatory democracy, instant change, and responsive and productive dialogue.
And when our fleeting desire to “get political” runs up against an unresponsive system, we are bound to feel disappointed, offended, or even scorned by our democracy. Part of the problem is our leaders and the political system: our politicians tend to gamble with our trust and lose it; contemporary governance structures can be groaning and complex to the point of being so arcane that even experts find themselves unable to comprehend them; and ordinary citizens are rarely called upon to do much more than vote.
But part of the problem is us. Our politicians are weak, but we don’t demand stronger ones. The system is complicated, but we make little effort to prioritize learning about it. And while we could build more time in our lives to engage as citizens, it doesn’t make our To-Do lists — after all, Homeland isn’t going to watch itself. Our problem is that the expectations we have for our democracy are divorced from the expectations we have of ourselves as citizens.
It’s important to make a distinction between being a citizen and being an individual, at least in a practical sense. Canada is a liberal democracy, which means that we privilege individual, negative rights — protection from being interfered with by the government. The word “liberal” roughly corresponds to what we do in our private lives — where and how we make a living, who we marry, what we do for with our free time, which YouTube videos we watch, and so on.
The word “democracy,” in a somewhat constrained sense, refers to collective self-rule, and indicates that, in theory, we all have a say in how we set up our society, how we decide what’s OK, and in choosing who will make policies and laws. In a broader sense, “democracy” also includes a series of requirements and character traits that make collective self-rule possible, such as reciprocity, openness, and civility.
Like the citizens of most Western liberal democracies, Canadians are great at being liberal and lousy at being democratic. We excel at individualism: we pursue wealth, speak our minds at the dinner table, and plan our lives and pursue our goals. When we’re required to be citizens, however, we fall short. Upwards of 40 per cent of us don’t bother to vote on the rare occasions we are called upon to do so. We seldom take our political complaints and demands beyond our private conversations, and we almost never effectively organize in a sustained, civil and effective way — activities required to bring about change in contemporary liberal democracies.
Political scientists spend a lot of time wondering why this is so. Are voters lazy? Stupid? Ignorant? Are the media partly to blame? Schools? Politicians? Video games and rap music? Or is it our brains? Are we just not wired to be citizens in a fast-paced, complicated world? Is it a mixture of all of the above?
While the jury is still out on these questions, a big part of the problem is that our system tends to work fairly well, for most of us, without our involvement. Part of the reason we’re such prolific liberals and such languid democrats is that we can afford to be. Since most of us live stable and comfortable lives, we’re generally fine with a trustee model of democracy, a model in which we elect representatives to do our dirty work, a model in which we occasionally check in on national issues, but quickly go back to our iPads and yoga classes, perhaps muttering epithets, when we realize either that resistance is futile or our own private lives are unlikely to be affected too much by whatever has caught our attention.
But issues facing Canada today require more than autopilot politics; and this requires that we move beyond mere individualism to become citizens through a sustained, deliberate effort. A warming planet, the growth of outrage amongst indigenous peoples and their allies, and the growing misery of marginalized groups are a few such issues. They serve as indicators that Canadians must demand more from not only their democratic representatives, but from themselves. These issues remind us that rather than adjusting the expectations we have for our democracy by lowering them, we should raise them while affirming our right and recognizing our need to become citizens.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: David Moscrop
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