In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World

196 Pages·2012·0.871 MB·English

by  Ivo Mosley

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv
1 . Is ‘Democracy’ Really Democracy? . . . . . . . . . 1
2 . ‘Representative Democracy’:
Establishing the Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 . Representative Government as a
Home-Grown Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4 . Case Study: How Debt Came to Rule the World . 50
5 . Representative Government II:
The Export Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
6 . The Oligarchy Today:
Corporations and Governments . . . . . . . .120
7 . Democracy and Good Government . . . . . . . .144
Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
Other titles available from Imprint Academic
and Andrews UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
In the Name of the People
Pseudo-democracy and the
spoiling of our world
Ivo Mosley
SOCIETAS
essays in political
& cultural criticism
imprint-academic.com/societas
Copyright © Ivo Mosley, 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted .
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form
without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in
criticism and discussion .
Originally published in the UK by
Imprint Academic, PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK
Originally distributed in the USA by
Ingram Book Company,
One Ingram Blvd ., La Vergne, TN 37086, USA
2013 digital version by Andrews UK Limited
www .andrewsuk .com
The ‘sovereign people’ is fast becoming a puppet .
—Herbert Spencer
Like a rock rolling downhill,
We have reached today .
—Ishikawa Takuboku
To destroy a sufficiently deep-seated delusion it is
necessary to show not only its absurdity but also its
origins .
—Lewis Namier
And then I noticed!
—David Mercer, ‘For Tea on Sunday’ .
One imagines that human nature would rise up
incessantly against despotism: but despite men’s love of
liberty and hatred of violence, most peoples are subjected
to this type of government . This is easy to understand . In
order to form a moderate government, powers must be
knitted together, regulated, tempered and enabled to act;
we must give enough ballast, so to speak, to one power
that it can resist others; this is a masterpiece of legislation
that chance rarely produces and that prudence is rarely
allowed to produce . By contrast, a despotic government
jumps into view; it is uniform throughout; only passion
is needed to produce it, and everyone is capable of that .
—Montesquieu
Cover design by Andrew Smith: andy .andrewsmith@hotmail .co .uk
Introduction
A wolf in sheep’s clothing is not a sheep: an elected representative
claiming to be ‘democratic’ is not a democrat . Democracy has a
simple meaning: ‘the people rule’ . If the people are not ruling, then
the nation is not a democracy . From the standpoint of the people:
if we hire someone else to clean our windows, we are not cleaning
them ourselves .
Until 1800, everyone knew these simple and obvious truths .
Electoral representation was considered to be the very opposite
of democracy . If it had to be given a name of Greek origin, the
correct one was ‘elective oligarchy’ meaning ‘rule by a few whom
we choose to rule us’ . As the first chapter of this book relates, it was
around the U .S . presidential election of 1800 that candidates first
thought of calling themselves ‘democrats’ to win more votes . After
that, it was a question of selling the illusion to all and sundry . A
variety of different interest groups—revolutionaries, the new middle
class, intellectuals and academics eager for employment—took up
the claim, and by about 1920 it was generally accepted: electoral
representation is democracy . How this happened is the subject of
Chapters Two and Three .
The aim of this book is to demonstrate that it is time to dispense
with this particular illusion and to introduce some real democracy .
Electoral representation is a simple formula by which, in theory,
any nation can get a good government . In practice, it is a means
by which any nation can get a gigantic bureaucracy, become deeply
indebted to a clique of ultra-rich people, and find its assets owned
by multinational corporations . There is nothing mysterious or
historically odd about this . Representation is a two-way business:
representatives negotiate between ‘the people’ and those in power—
whether that power is a monarch, a military government, a landed
aristocracy, political parties or pure money . Representatives are
human and do what they have to do, to keep their jobs . This is the
subject of Chapters Five and Six .
This is not to say that electoral representation is in itself bad .
As an active force, it makes absolutism less likely: the electorate
is asked to give some kind of consent, every now and then, to
the government it gets . What representation has made possible,
however, is bamboozlement on a scale so vast it is impossible to
comprehend . Almost the first thing representatives did in England
when they became nominally the ‘supreme power’ (1688) was to
make the questionable practices of English bankers legal (this is the
subject of Chapter Four) . They borrowed money from the same
bankers (personally and in the name of ‘the people’) for their own
projects: wars, buying up assets and putting those they dispossessed
to profitable work (the profits going to themselves) .
The first six chapters of this book are a negative and fragmentary
picture of our civilization: a diagnostic report, in the hope that
a coroner’s report won’t be needed soon . The final chapter is
an attempt to show that democracy can be real and can work .
Genuinely democratic practices have been included in constitutions
in the past and still operate in certain places today . Democracy can
be introduced, in its various forms, into our Western systems for the
benefit of all, restraining the antics of the powerful and restoring
some equity to relations between rich and poor .
Acknowledgements: So many people have helped me that I cannot
thank them all; moreover, some insisted on anonymity . I would,
however, especially like to thank my family, immediate and
extended, for keeping me going; and Keith Sutherland for having
what it takes to publish this book .
An apology: substantial changes have been made to parts of this
book since review copies were printed and sent out . I apologise to
reviewers and readers for any confusion that might arise as a result .
1. Is ‘Democracy’ Really Democracy?
There is no greater misnomer in our Western world than calling our
systems of electoral representation ‘democracies’ . This misnomer—or
illusion—began to take hold around 1800 . Before then ‘democracy’
was understood to mean the opposite of electoral representation . It
meant citizens participating in government in three different ways:
by voting directly on issues and appointments; by acting as part-time
public officials themselves; and by being members of parliament-
type assemblies selected (as juries are) by lot . These practices are all
opposite to electoral representation .
Governments formed by election were understood to be not
democratic but ‘oligarchic’—meaning ‘rule by a few’ rather than
‘rule by the people’ . The distinction is obvious and elementary . If
we want to rule ourselves, we must be active in ruling, burdensome
though that might be . If we choose others to rule us, we no longer
rule ourselves: we are not democratic .
Here are some quotes from across the centuries up to 1800 to
illustrate how democracy was generally understood . Whether these
writers loved democracy or hated it, they did not think that elections
were an essential part of the democratic process:
Herodotus (5th Century B .C .):
Democracy has the fairest of all descriptions—equality in
law . Offices are filled by lot, power is held accountable,
and all questions are put up for open debate .—from
Histories, 3 .80 .6
Plato (428–348 B .C .):
And democracy comes into power when the poor are the
victors, killing some and exiling some, and giving equal
shares in the government to all the rest .—from Republic,
book VIII .
Aristotle (384–322 B .C .):
It is thought democratic if the offices are assigned by
lot; for them to be elected is oligarchic .—from Politics
IV,1294a .
Cicero (106–43 B .C .):
Therefore every people, or state, or republic must be ruled
by an overall intelligence (consilium) if it is to last . When
this is entrusted to one person, we call it monarchy;
where it is undertaken by certain select people, we call
it aristocracy; when it resides in the people we call it
democracy (civitas popularis) .— from The Republic Book
I, 41,42 .
Elyot, 1531:
Another public weal was among the Athenians, where
equality was of estate among the people, and only by their
whole consent their city and dominions were governed:
which might well be called a monster with many heads .
Nor never it was certain nor stable; and often times they
banished or slew the best citizens, which by their virtue
and wisdom had most profited to the public weal . This
manner of governance was called in Greek Democratia,
in Latin Popularis Potentia, in English the rule of the
commonalty .—from The Book named the Governor .
Althusius (1557–1638):
The nature of democracy requires that there be liberty and
equality of honours, which consist in these things: that
the citizens alternately rule and obey, that there be equal
rights for all, and that there be an alteration of private
and public life so that all rule in particular matters and
individuals obey in all matters .—from Politica, 39, 61 .
Hobbes (1588–1679):
The Kinds of Soveraigntie be, as I have now shewn, but
three; that is to say, Monarchie, where one Man has it;
or Democracie, where the generall Assembly of Subjects
hath it; or Aristocracie, where it is in an Assembly of
certain persons nominated, or otherwise distinguished
from the rest .—from Leviathan .
Montesquieu (1689–1755):
When, in a Republic, the people have the sovereign
power, it is a democracy… Selection by lot is natural to
democracy; election by choice is natural to aristocracy .—
from De l’Esprit des Lois, Bk II Ch . 2 .
Rousseau (1712–78):
‘Selection by lot,’ says Montesquieu, ‘is democratic
in nature .’ I agree… But I have already said that real
democracy is only an ideal . When election and lot are
combined, positions that require special talents, such as
military posts, should be filled by the former; the latter
is right for cases, such as judicial offices, in which good
sense, justice, and integrity are enough, because in a State