By all that's holy, defend democracy
A silly petition shows us what we hold dear, writes George Pitcher
One of the more ludicrous constitutional contributions of late has been the parliamentary petition, started by a Shropshire publican and with close on three million signatures when I last looked, demanding another general election be called. Because the Labour government, elected in July, has “gone back on the promises they laid out in the lead-up to the last election.”
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has surprised precisely no one by saying that he won’t be calling one. And so we’ll move on. But, in passing, what is truly breathtaking is how little our democracy is understood (note that Elon Musk supports the UK petition) and, apparently, how unseriously democracy in the west is now taken. If that sounds unduly censorious, I have a two-word response: Three million!
Little time need be spent on demolishing the premise of the spurious petition itself, other than to wonder how many of those signatories would have appeared on one calling for, say, a fresh mandate after the coalition government of David Cameron and Nick Clegg (where is he now? Ah yes) performed a massive reverse-ferret on a manifesto pledge not to raise university tuition fees.
Or how many of these same fearless electors believe the result of the Brexit referendum should be voided because of the lies of the Leave campaign, most notable the one painted on the side of Boris Johnson’s battle bus. But no – three million residual, self-righteous righties can now be mobilised against a Labour government.
Slippage in western democracy
This event nonetheless raises valid questions about what our democracy is (and is not) and why we should want to protect or even, praise be, to cherish it. These questions become the more critical because there’s a tangible feeling of slippage in western democracy, as if we’re growing a bit tired and even contemptuous of it.
There’s the ominous re-growth of nationalism across Europe. And not a few bien pensants – me included, to my shame – might admit to a feeling after Donald Trump’s re-election as US president that democracy is too important to be left to the people.
Rule of law
Slightly more seriously, we need to ask ourselves what the qualities of democracy are that we should seek to defend. The first of these is, quite obviously, the rule of law. Should a political actor seek to overthrow a democratically established electoral process, then that is a crime. Witness the horrors on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on 6th January 2021.
That’s the Feast of the Epiphany as it happens, but nothing to do with the coming of wise men. With Trump at the centre of it. Draw your own democratic conclusions – and weep for the rule of law.
Again, why does this matter and what is it about democracy that we hold sacred, even holy? It can’t simply be that we hold dear a kind of hard utilitarian ideal that what we elect to do is for the benefit of most of the people, for most of the time, as decided by popular mandate among the demos.
Presented with a choice
If we believe in democracy, as I believe most of us do, we’re presented with a choice: We can look to secularism as a solution, universal Enlightenment principles built on citizenship and equality before the law. Or we can look to a multiculturist model, keeping the peace between essentially separate communities and the state.
Or we can shape something on Augustinian Christianity, that recognises the limits of political democracy, which would eschew undemocratic theocracy, but which would hold that no political order other than the Body of Christ (the Church) can claim absolute (as in divine) authority.
Pointing to a healed world
We’re in classic Rowan Williams theological territory here: “[T]he Body of Christ is not a political order on the same level as others, competing for control, but a community that signifies, that points to a possible healed human world.”
Unsurprisingly, I buy that. Williams goes further to state this spiritual effect on the political environments in which we find ourselves is likely to be “sceptical and demystifying.” Which seems to be a reasonable manifesto in a democracy.
The principle of election can be a worrying one in theological terms. We don’t “elect” God, though some secularists would claim that the Godhead is our invention. Rather, it has sometimes been perceived to be the other way around historically.
“The Elect” will be saved
Reformational Calvinism would hold, among many other things, the rather terrifying view that we’re elected by God. “The Elect” are those who will be saved, while the rest of us (I presume) can rot in hell. Little democracy there.
Less deterministically, a more modernist worldview would argue that the Christian faith, on which foundation western civilisation is built, offers a viable moral definition of the lawful state, with which politicians of all (democratic) persuasions can tackle issues of global justice. Even Jordan Peterson would hold this orthodoxy.
One such issue of natural justice is to ensure that vexatious petitions don’t overthrow legally elected governments, either by lobby or violence. That’s an important aspect of Christian witness and will require true grit in its application during the years ahead. If the world is our oyster, then we’re that grit in it.
George Pitcher is a visiting fellow at the LSE and an Anglican priest
A version of this column first appeared on Seen&Unseen
Might this be the begining of democracy working?
The 'people'frustrated with broken promises made by politicians are so frustrated they are now telling the untrsustworthy policiticans, enough is enough.
Hopefully this will make the politicians think twice before making wild promises in future..
Savings are money saved from taxed income, savings then purchase assets.
Tax on assets is double taxation on money you have worked hard for and saved.
Tax collectors, throw them to the lions he cried!