Non-Violent Means to Democracy: Gene Sharp

It is not easy to achieve democracy. It is also a struggle at times to maintain one. Here in the USA, we are fortunate that the authoritarian political party, the Republican Party, lies in defeat, a victim of its own irrational and destructive policies. Other countries are not so fortunate. In some countries our democratic brothers and sisters risk their lives and livelihoods to achieve the dream.

A recent news item concerning the post-election protests in Iran mentioned that democratic protesters in several authoritarian countries have relied upon a book by an American social theorist, Gene Sharp, titled From Freedom to Democracy. You can obtain a free copy here.

The underlying idea is a corollary to what I wrote in an earlier post, The Social Cooperative. Since the social group is essentially a cooperative, it relies upon cooperation to function. If the members wish to disrupt it, one thing they can do is stop cooperating!

In his book, Gene Sharp thoughtfully discusses and weighs various strategies and tactics a democratic movement can use to terminate social cooperation with authoritarian management and achieve full democracy. I think one important point was to de-legitimize the regime, by identifying and attacking its “Achille’s Heel.” I would ask, “What do they say is their reason for leading?” They are probably failing at whatever they claim is the basis for their legitimacy. Point that out to everyone, all the time, by all the means available to you. For example, is the Chinese Communist Party truly protecting China’s working class, given its lax pollution and manufacturing standards? Are the ayatollahs in Iran truly upholding Islamic ideals, or just their personal power? What good are the generals of Myanmar?

Of course, members of the national military establishment play perhaps the most decisive role. I would think that members of that establishment would have to be at least sympathetic to the democratic movement for the democratic movement to succeed.

But I will give the final word to Lech Walesa, leader of the successful Solidarity movement of Poland:
"Lead your struggle in a wise way but do not hit your heads against the wall...If not this time, you will win next time."

World Democracy: Tocqueville

Events in China, Iran and Myanmar remind us that the will to democracy is alive around the world. It does not need the support of American weapons. It needs the support of the people living under those authoritarian regimes. That support is growing, as the people come to see that authoritarian governments are not ultimately concerned about the general welfare of the people. The allegiance of an authoritarian government is to individuals, dogma or tradition. To protect these things, authoritarian governments set aside the needs and aspirations of their people.

This state of affairs cannot last. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that:

• “Variety is disappearing from the human race; the same ways of acting, thinking, and feeling are to be met with all over the world. This is not only because nations work more upon each other, and are more faithful in their mutual imitation; but as the men of each country relinquish more and more the peculiar opinions and feelings of a caste, a profession, or a family, they simultaneously arrive at something nearer to the constitution of man, which is everywhere the same. Thus they become more alike, even without having imitated each other. Like travelers scattered about some large wood, which is intersected by paths converging to one point, if all of them keep their eyes fixed upon that point and advance towards it, they insensibly draw nearer together--though they seek not, though they see not, though they know not each other; and they will be surprised at length to find themselves all collected on the same spot. All the nations which take, not any particular man, but man himself, as the object of their researches and their imitations, are tending in the end to a similar state of society, like these travelers converging to the central plot of the forest.” [Democracy in America, Volume II, Part III, Ch.17]

• “The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or to wretchedness.” [Democracy in America, Volume II, Part IV, Ch. 8]

May the party officials in China apprehend that “democratic centralism” is not democratic.

May the clerics in Iran apprehend that it does not help their religion or their government to insist that their religion and government be combined. [May our Republican leaders in the U.S. apprehend this, too!]

May the generals in Myanmar apprehend that their authoritarian control of the nation is harming the welfare of their people, and the Law of Karma applies. Free Aung San Suu Kyi and all of the people of Myanmar!

Open for Three Years!

Dear Reader,

Jefferson’s Parlor is now three years old. Like a child, it continues to change and evolve. In 2006 and 2007 I laid out what I believed to be the foundations of democratic political philosophy, citing works by philosophers I considered most relevant. My blog posts in 2008 often concerned the election that year, but I also wrote about common issues faced by democracies. This year my posts have been more current and topical, and I have enjoyed writing them just as much.

In honor of the occasion, I will have this kitten sing “Happy Birthday!” to Jefferson’s Parlor. The kitten will conclude with remarks in a language other than English, possibly Chinese, and hopefully not offensive!

Why not Include a Public Health Insurance Option?

As I noted in a previous post, our national Constitution itself declares that one purpose of our union is "to promote the general welfare."

In that regard, our national experience has shown that:
1. We cannot rely entirely on the private sector to insure our access to health care. There are many Americans who are being deprived of health care insurance by the private system.
2. Several forms of optional public health insurance have functioned for decades and remain popular, such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Veteran’s Administration.

I am therefore in favor of having some form of universal public health insurance available in our national health care system. I think it would be easiest to expand the Medicare option to include anyone who wants it, but perhaps experience and investigation indicate that another way is likely to be more effective.

To those who are opposed to having any public health insurance option, I would ask, “What is your opposition based on?” If it is based simply on anti-government dogma, your opposition represents a refusal to consider options, facts and experience, and it is unworthy of consideration in the real world. There are simply too many lives at stake.

Don't Give Up the Fight!

Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your right!

[AP Photo/Jeff Widener]

Bleeding Kansas

About 150 years ago, the topic dividing our country and inspiring violence in Kansas was the question of whether the State would enforce ownership of the bodies of Africans for the purpose of agriculture.

Now the topic dividing our country and inspiring violence in Kansas is the question of whether the State will enforce ownership of the bodies of women for the purpose of child-bearing.