Democracy Goes Wrong
Democracy is self-defeating. Freedom-loving people should place their hopes on secession rather than useless elections. In this recent interview about my book Beyond Democracy I explain the many flaws of this collectivist system.
Frank, in your book you strongly criticize democracy, a political system that is seen by most people to have no reasonable alternative. What then goes wrong with democracy?
Democracy is collectivist in nature. Democracy allows the majority to force their ideas upon others who do not share these views. Voting enables people to live at the expense of others, or even to expropriate them. This inevitably creates social tensions and results in the loss of production. After a certain time every democracy therefore suffers from the same problems as socialism, albeit in milder form: excessive bureaucracy, economic stagnation, loss of freedom, centralization, corruption and social conflicts.
But don’t democratic constitutions protect the rights of individuals?Yes, these examples illustrate my claims. The majority can impose its views on the minority. With these anti-discrimination laws the majority has turned the fundamental rights, which were originally intended only as a defense of the individual against the state, in the opposite direction. The rules are now being used to mandate how individuals must behave in interactions with other individuals, and the State has the exclusive power to enforce these rules.
And the quotas for women directly contradict the equality article of the German Constitution (“No person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of gender…”). But the majority is apparently allowed to do so. Minimum wages logically lead to the destruction of jobs, experts basically agree on that. The majority feels better because of it but does not carry any responsibility for the negative consequences.
To what would you attribute this lack of quality in democratic decisions?
By definition, the majority is less responsible, less industrious and less honest than the ones at the top, since these traits follow a normal (Gaussian) distribution curve. In science and industry those who excel call the shots. In a democracy however we rely on the uninformed masses to decide on an ever-increasing number of subjects – also in science and industry. That’s not a sensible approach.
As a libertarian you probably don’t favor expert rule, dictatorship or theocracy. What might an alternative to democracy look like?
It is important to understand that we already use “alternatives to democracy” in our daily lives. We don’t decide democratically in companies, in science, in our families or when we buy our groceries. Smartphones keep getting better not because we democratically vote on the executive board of Apple or Samsung, but because each individual can buy his prefered product for himself and the demand for bad products thereby ceases. It’s not a dictator that buys our car for us! Naturally we do it ourselves. We should simply apply this proven mechanism to other areas of life too.
How?
I propose a market for governmental services like justice, defense and security. This can be achieved by breaking up the current cartel of 200 countries into thousands of independent communities. The world needs massive decentralization through secession. When there are many alternatives it will be easier for every person to avoid bad systems by voting with their feet, rather than by exerting their negligible influence every few years at the ballot box.
And what should those people do who fear a free market?
They can also arrange a system according to their preferences. I have nothing against socialism or paternalistic systems as long as membership is voluntary! Those new countries could provide a multitude of different systems, anything from authoritarian rule like in Dubai to advanced democracies like Switzerland, mixed systems like Liechtenstein, or private societies based on contracts.
What do you mean by “contractual societies”?
In these societies citizens are offered a contract in which is clearly stipulated how much you would have to pay for governmental services and what will be offered in return. These contractual societies would would provide legal certainty to citizens, contrary to the current situation in which laws are unilaterally changed according to the whims of politicians. Independent arbiters will decide in case of disputes. Membership is not necessarily based on one man – one vote. Just as with companies influence is based on merits, position and equity. In the end it’s the customers who decide which systems they like best and governments will be subjected to the discipline of the market.
That sounds utopian. How would you like to achieve that?
We need to raise awareness on why democracy does not work. Naturally democracy has the historic advantage of fostering bloodless power changes and perhaps it is also a necessary interim step to a free society. But considering the problems I just outlined it is certainly not the end of history. We should promote decentralization, by which power is transferred from Brussels to the national states and from the capitals to the municipalities and to the individual. It would be great if we could create special economic zones in Europe. They can operate as societal laboratories in which new ideas are tried in a small way. It worked very well for Shenzhen in China and inspired the Chinese rulers to grant more liberties to other regions. We should indicate that small is beautiful and that micro nations like Liechtenstein and Monaco are generally very successful and have low poverty rates.
Are you optimistic about the implementation of your ideas?
Yes, because truth generally wins in the long run. The cracks in our democracies are beginning to show, and people are noticing. So I am confident things will get better, just like they did in the past.
Original interview by T. Gebel for the German Employers Association (Deutscher Arbeitgeberverband AV)
Leave a Reply