Democracy is about asking questions

The US Presidential election is arguably the most watched political process around the world and not the least because the US is the world’s sole remaining superpower. The overpowering presence and reach of the US media also has a significant role to play in this, converting this uniquely American process into a sort of festival of democracy worldwide.

And why not. For common people everywhere, there is a vicarious thrill in watching whether a peanut farmer becomes the most powerful man in the world, or whether an oil billionaire’s money actually buys him passage to the Oval Office. Or, indeed, whether an African-American will be elected to lead what most of the world still sees as a white country.

Democracy at work

But while the rest of the world had its attention focused on whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney would occupy the White House for the next four years, American voters themselves were considering a bewildering number of questions quite apart from whom they were going to vote for as President in the recently concluded US elections.

When they entered the voting booth on November 6, American voters were asked for their opinion on not just whom they wanted as President, but on a staggeringly diverse number of questions. Millions of voters were also asked to record where they stood on more than 170 questions, proposals and initiatives.

Some applied to the State where they resided, many to their local districts (known as counties) and even more were specific to their city or town. And what a bewildering, amazing, exhilarating range of questions! From whether the adult use of marijuana should be de-criminalised to whether abortion should be legalised (in some States, the question was the reverse), to whether the death penalty should be abolished, to whether euthanasia should be offered to those who seek it, to whether the school syllabus should be changed, to who should be considered to be qualified for a judge’s job to, in Puerto Rico, whether they should actually become the 51st State of the United States of America! They voted for statehood, as it happens.

Many of the propositions would seem weird, quirky or downright crazy to non-Americans. In Los Angeles, for instance, voters were asked to decide whether male actors in pornographic films (they’re legal in California) should be forced to wear condoms, a proposal strongly opposed by the State’s adult film industry (the world’s largest), which had seen a 30 per cent drop in sales after it experimentally started putting condoms on male actors.

In North Dakota, voters were asked to decide whether intentionally harming a dog, cat or horse should be made a crime. In Oregon, the question asked was whether the Native American population’s monopoly right to operate gambling casinos should be taken away. As a rider, they were even asked whether the State’s Constitution should be rewritten to improve grammar and spelling!

The point here is not the profundity, or the absence thereof, in the questions themselves. The point is that such questions are being asked, formally, in an open and democratic manner, of the people. And that their answers are respected. This is real democracy at work. When people have the right to decide, not just on the big questions, like who should be given the right to press the nuclear red button, but the small ones like whether cruelty to cats is a crime. In a real democracy, the common man should have as much of a say on what becomes policy or law, as his elected representative.

Referendums in India

One suspects this is an idea which will not be too popular with the political class in India. India continues to be one of just a handful of functioning democracies in the world which does not give its citizens the right to hold referendums on issues which they consider to be important.

Note the distinction here. Referendums are not unknown in India. Perhaps the most famous one, and the one which has had the most fractious impact on our post Independence history, was the one on Kashmir.

But all the referendums that we have had have been at the behest of the ruling establishment, which has chosen to go to the people for a specific answer on a specific question. That question, and the decision to ask that question, were both taken by the establishment in power, not by the people.

In the US, in contrast, anybody can start a petition to have a question added to the ballot paper. Provided they get a certain minimum number of eligible voters to support that petition, the question gets asked. Some US States even have a provision to broaden the scope of the referendum by asking other States to include the same question in their polls. Here, though, political parties are much more in favour of poll promises and grand statements in manifestos for pitching at people.

After all, once the elections are over, poll promises can be conveniently forgotten, and they can get on with the ‘real’ business of lawmaking.

Aam Aadmi Party

The newest player on the political scene, though, is threatening to change all that. Arvind Kejriwal and his ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ (Common Man Party) have attracted surprisingly little comment, after they turned legitimate, and formally declared themselves as a political party. Or perhaps that is not very surprising, since, till such time as they prove their strength in the only way which matters to the political class — by way of election wins — they will be just another party joining India’s long list of organised political parties.

As many as 53 parties took part in the first general elections in 1951, including 14 national political parties. By 2009, the number of national, regional and state parties who participated in the elections had stretched to a staggering 363, according to data released by the Election Commission of India. This does not include the many which did not even make it to the list of registered, but unrecognised parties, whose candidates were all clubbed under the ‘independent’ category.

So the three hundred and sixty fourth player, now that it has become the three hundred and sixty fourth and not just an uncomfortable irritant to the other ‘organised’ political parties, will, willy-nilly, be part of the noisy hubbub of the Indian version of democracy, whose voice will only be amplified once they have some elected representatives to amplify it.

But that does not mean that the Aam Aadmi Party should be dismissed. Quite apart from promising to not allow their MPs or MLAs from using flashing red beacons (our regular politicians are prepared to kill for that privilege), or promising to disclose all donations received on their Web site (another promise which will be seen more as a threat by the other players), Kejriwal’s party also promises to bring in the right to hold referundums if it is in a position to do so.

That, to my mind, is the most important question raised by Kejriwal. Real democracy is not only about who you choose to ask questions on your behalf. Real democracy is about asking questions. After 65 years of practice, one feels our democracy is experienced enough to have earned that right.

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