Guy Fawkes Night

There has never been a better time to celebrate Guy Fawkes night. Here in the Low Countries, Guy Fawkes is not so well known, but fortunately we have Blackadder on television to learn all about English national history. Guy Fawkes was a specialist in explosives and was caught on 5 November 1605 while putting in place gunpowder under the seat of the king in the House of Lords. In this way, he gained eternal glory as the first religious terrorist and as an enemy of British parliament. In the more recent past, his mask had already become a widespread symbol of protest and subversivity, but at the peak of today’s Brexit-madness, his attack on parliament is getting a new meaning. The mask and the traditional bonfires also fit very well to the Halloween atmosphere in this time of the year.

Are we living the end of representative democracy? It seems like all countries are going through political crises. We see the upcoming of poujadist-type of politicians and parties and the corresponding polarisation, in all western democracies. We see an increasing number of farce-sessions in parliaments, from the UK to Flanders and Ukraine. We see the rise of rebellion movements, from the gilets jaunes to the Chilean people. Representative democracy has undermined itself by turning into particracy. The problem is that parties have become so powerful that they can block parliament by demanding obedience from their elected party members. Another problem is that the people no longer believe that the political class is smarter or better informed. Moreover the states have become unable to execute their good intentions.

Political structures seem to melt more easily because of the heatwaves of change. Some people plead for direct democracy through computer and internet. I doubt however, if people will be willing to collect sufficient information to make good choices and if they will decide in the general interest of the country. You may argue that this is exactly the problem with representative democracy today. I agree, but at least the elected politicians can spend some time during the day to discuss and think about the topics? Suppose you had to make well-founded decisions in your evenings and weekends? What we need is more stability, less change-for-change, and well-defined priorities. We could ask the people to vote about the priorities though.

I refer to my earlier blog “Mainstream versus Democracy”.