The lie of "Democracy"

Democracy: The term originates from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was found from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (krátos) "power" or "rule".

So why would this be a lie today ?

In democratic countries, we are allowed to vote. It is a privilege and responsibility. But does the vote today really gives power to the people by the people ? Is this real democracy or something else ? Let's look at it in details.

Voter turnout

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. There have been many efforts to increase turnout and encourage voting. A high turnout is generally seen as evidence of the legitimacy of the current system. Some countries fabricate numbers to show a higher turnout and give legitimacy to the elected.
In United States, the turnout rarely goes above 55%
In Canada, where we had a high turnout, a significant decline is visible today and we are dropping well around the 60%.
In France still shows a strong 70% for presidential election, but the parliamentary votes has a huge drop.

Now in those three countries a blank vote or blank ballot is considered null and void, and thus is not counted. So if you do this your government will just ignore you. So much for expressing your dissatisfaction and democracy, right ?
Some find that the only way to express disapproval with the candidates, is to refrain from voting. Yes it does shows in the statistics,  but there is no distinction between, those who did not vote  because they don't care and those that did not because they cared enough to express their dissatisfaction .
At the end the government does not care ! You just have a limited choice and you have to make do with the options given to you. Even if there was only a rate of 10% voter turnout, the one with the majority of votes will still be elected. Yes even if 90% of the voters (not the population) does not agree, you would still have to live with minority's choice.

So this is reason number 1 why democracy is a lie.

Election is not a persons voice

In countries like Canada and the United States your vote does not count directly to elect the president or prime minister, but will depend on the number of seats or electoral votes.

In this situation you have but no choice to vote for intermediate persons or parties you may not want at a lower hierarchy level so you get the person you want to be elected at the highest level. The opposite is true as well, you may have to decide to vote for a undesired local representative just so you don't vote in favor of a party's leader.

All in all, you do not vote based on a persons quality, ideas, and vision, but vote for a party and its entire package, weather you like it or not.
There is nothing wrong with voting for parties, but sometimes you may feel that a certain party should fill the intermediate positions, but not the head position, because their candidate is wrong. Now how, as a voter, can you express this by voting ? well, you can't !

Again you are limited to what the 'democracy' offers you and this is why this is not true democracy.

Voting for dreams

Normally, parties and candidates present a plan and make promises to the people, it is based on these two subjects that they are/should be elected.
Needless to say that very little elected accomplish the plans and live up to their promises. Now they do bring thousands of excuses and justifications, and spend most of their time accusing others, but at the end, they rarely get the job done as expected... Yet they remain political leaders and still receive our money as a compensation of their 'work'.... How many of us would have been fired in such conditions ?

So are we voting for dreams ? Not only, I'd say we are handing deliberately our voice to political avid individuals who just want our vote so they can make use of power liberally.

This is why, more than ever, politics is more of a reality show orchestrated so we buy it in. It is an ongoing commercial playing with our lives where there is little we can say or do to change it. When voting we are merely giving up our power to an elite few. This democracy is closer to aristocracy with a lease change option.

Politicians transformed democracy to a huge 'lie and be free' work environment.

A majority is not more than half

We are under the false assumption that a majority means that half or more of the country voted for the elected. This is not true and can be an indication of how bad our current system really resonates with the people.
For instance in the US, according to numbers in the 2012 elections, roughly 66 millions voted for Obama and 61 millions for Romney. So it means that only 20% of the population voted for Obama to be president. This is so little...
In Canada, in 2011 only 16% of the population actually voted for the Conservative party.

You may argue that the population is not actually the number of possible voters, and you'd be right. But DEMOcracy is about the people, not the citizens. Also, what I want to stress out is how a minority of the people actually voted for their current leader. Shouldn't the elected be given power equal to the proportions of persons that voted for him ?

Aren't we lying to ourselves ? Is this the democracy we think represents the people's voice ? What about legitimacy ?

Try to present yourself

In democracy anyone is normally allowed to present himself to be elected. The truth is that this is hard to achieve in reality. There are many reasons for this;

• the obligation to form a party
• raising funds but being free of influences and illegal funding
• getting attention by advertising
• being present in the media, most of the time you are turned down because not part of the old established party (that also fund the medias)
• placing your work and personal life to pursue an ideal you do not find in any candidates
• etc...

The list can be very extensive. No matter how good your ideas and projects may be, the current political class has made sure it is hard to move them from their comfort zone that we all pay for.

Package voting

We vote for a candidate or a party and take whatever comes with it. But we may not agree with everything inside the package, yet we are forced to accept it. It is a take it or leave it deal.
In my mind this is not democracy, this is selective dictatorship.

As people we should have the power to decide the rules of our country and any thing that is considered important. Democracy is not about choice of a ruler, but choice of the rules and powers inside a country expressed by the people.

Short sited

The elected are there for a short time, in that regard they only act upon what has impact in the short term for their interest. They have little to no interest in the long run implications of the country. Education, science or other lasting and important departments are being reduced, because not showing strong short term results. This situation shows how bad a short sited and elected power negatively affects a country.

Democracy expect the people to rule the country for a lasting and prosper future. It is all the opposite that our current 'democracy' shows, and another reason why it is a lie.

Not democracy but Electocracy

I hope that I have demonstrated that this is not real democracy, it bears the name, but the people has very little power to design their future.

I personally would name our current political situation Electocracy, and here are the rules I found it works by:

• the adults citizens may expressed a desire to elect someone or a party to rule in their name and represent them for a short term.
• the adults citizens may express their voice only at given times when allowed by the law.
• the adults citizens may only elect among the limited elite politicians that have qualified to high and difficult prerequisites (honesty and integrity not needed and usually discouraged).
• the adults citizens can only choose an entire package, called promises, their are no optional selections
• the adults citizens have little to no say in the government decisions and behavior after the elections.
• the people will pay the due to the elected government as it see fits without any right to discuss or blame said government of budget irregularities and over expenses.
• the elected may contract debts in the name of the people without their agreement.
• the elected are free between themselves to pass any laws they see fit, and are also allowed to disguise the laws for their acceptance.
• the elected have no obligation to comply with their promises.
• the parties and elected are allowed to spend people's money for their personal and internal needs even if it does not profit the country directly.

This is not democracy. I would love true democracy.