Democracy and Governance

There is a good number of people who often view democracy and governance as an opposing dichotomy. Democracy speaks of freedom and the rights of the individuals. Governance however comes from the root word of 'to govern' or to preside and manage a group of people.

I however believe that they are both the same sides of the coin and in fact important pillars of a progressive society. In other words, democracy and governance must be balanced. The background behind what prompted this post is in essence the problem that we are witnessing in the world today. Rising oil and food prices, students shooting out in schools and all other problems of society.

I know that people might berate me for the lack of respect for democracy and believe strongly in the rights of the individual but the problem I find is that without a mechanism to aggregate those rights, you get anarchy. I am a firm believer of the Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and the free market. Because of the system of valuation and scales derived by a monetary system, a free market economy is an extremely neat decentralised control system for the allocation of scare resources. Not everything however can work in a "vote" system.

To aggregate society and in respecting the rights of the individual, we have given everyone a right to decide and we make selection by the common wisdom of the herd. It is however unfortunate that the herd instinct may not be the right instinct. We have witness bad policies of price controls and subsides in times when the free market economy needs a free hand to right itself and solve problems of scarcity. This is all because of the political will of the masses that are exerting extreme pressures on their leaders to meet their own self-interest for the short term. It is interesting and my opinion that Adolf Hilter was chosen by a democracy that was enraptured in nationalistic zeal.

I think we need to move to a new level where we balance democracy with good governance. We need strong leaders with good morals and ethics who have moral courage to defy the narrow interests of the individuals and consider the greater good of the community. This is sorely lacking in today's world. I am following the American Election with great curiosity and find that the continuous feedback loop of popular and opinion polls to be extremely disruptive. Presidential Candidates must move quickly and reverendly to the "heartbeat" of the people and at times pander after the select communities which they are addressing. By being so excessively sycophantic towards the masses, they makes statements, backtrack, side-step and basically do whatever it takes to win. Then of course when the dust settles and the decision is final, the people realise that they hardly knew the man they elected, because everything he said on the electoral race could hardly be counted upon and did not define how he would make choices for future challenges.

Is this the result from democracy that I desire? I guess not, and I'd take good governance anyday. In fact, I think people forget that the real purpose of the democracy is to ensure good governance. It is therefore the means to an end (good governance) and people should not take their eyes off the prize (because real good leaders would advance the rights and interest of the individuals anyway).

To the government and leaders, please never forget that.

To the fanatics of democracy, I think you're missing the point.