Popular democracy
Encyclopedia
Popular democracy is a notion of direct democracy
based on referendum
s and other devices of empowerment
and concretization of popular will. The concept evolved out of the political philosophy of Populism
, as a fully democratic version of this popular empowerment ideology, but since it has become independent of it, and some even discuss if they are antagonistic or unrelated now (see Values). Though the expression has been used since the 19th century and may be applied to English Civil War
politics, at least the notion (or the notion in its current form) is deemed recent and only recently got fully developed.
producer, director and writer Collin Thomas, see the Levellers
, resistance of groups to both the Stuart monarchy and Oliver Cromwell
’s English Republic
as early popular democracy advocacy groups. Thomas sees the line of this early popular democracy going through the dissenting church, to the American Revolutionaries
and later British trade unionism..
Thomas Paine
's Common Sense
is sometimes considered to defend a form of popular democracy. Andrew Jackson
was considered a defendant of popular democracy as a politician and president, and his presidency is considered as having made the transition from republic
to popular democracy in the United States
Walt Whitman
uses the word in Democratic Vistas
as description of the vague notion of masse democracy with universal suffrage
of a more or less direct and participatory
type he defended. He admitted that the system had some dangers, but it "practically justifies itself beyond the proudest claims and wildest hopes of its enthusiasts". William Jennings Bryan
may be considered a popular democrat for his support of a democracy based on popular sovereignty .
Teddy Roosevelt is considered a defender of a popular democrat insurgency against big business and elitism.
In the end of the first half of the 20th century, the Christian democratic parties preferred the term "popular democrats" to Christian democrats.
, popular democracy, together with economic
and social liberalism
and hindu nationalism
, is considered one of the main currents who tried to define Indian politics since 1947.
Iran
is sometimes referred as having a history of Popular Democracy in parallel with the Pahlevi Monarchy
before the overthrowing of Mossadeq and reinstating of the Shah.
Eugene McCarthy
was seen as a popular democrat presidential campaigner in 1968.
In 1969 Muammar al-Gaddafi
overthrows the pro-western monarchy and created a system he claims to be a popular democracy.
, officially ended the one party state of Ba'ath Syria created by the 1963 coup d'état
in 1970, declaring the creation of a multi-party popular democracy.
In 1975 Al Gathafi wrote The Green Book, where he defends his political system as a form of "direct and popular democracy" based on the will of the people instead of representative parliament
s.
After the fall of Ferdinand Marcos
in 1986 it was created in the Philippines a research and advocacy centre called Institute for Popular Democracy
, who frequently criticizes "elite politics" and defends reformist local social movement
s.
Some Burkinabé
Communists founded a group who supported a Marxist-Leninist People's Democracy (though with a free-market economic plan) in 1989, the Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement
. In 1991 they renounced Marxism-Leninism and transformed their Marxism-Leninism into a form of popular democrat philosophy.
Václav Havel
's civil-society
-centered democratic Czechoslovakia
was considered another form of popular democracy by some.
In 1996 the popular democratic Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement created the Congress for Democracy and Progress
, being the current ruling party in Burkina Faso.
is sometimes considered as a vital part or an example of modern popular democratic practices .
Some Marxist groups consider that the current Middle East
is currently prepared for and wishes popular democracy (which in this context may be referring to Marxist People's Democracy) but that the "neoconservative design upon the region" and American power prevents this .
There are some signs interpreted by analysts as possibilities of popular democracy, in Nigeria
, Abkhazia
and Georgia
and Somaliland
.
Hugo Chávez
is sometimes considered to either be practicing or simulating popular democracy.
In 2003 it was published one of the main book-length appraisals of popular democracy, Hilary Wainwright
's Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy, a criticism of both Social Democracy
and Big government
and Neoliberalism
and Big Business
.
The Chinese democracy movement
sometimes chooses a popular democrat system as the easiest democratic model from which the People's Republic of China
could evolve out of the current one-party system ("people's democracy"), something which has already been criticized by some Chinese democracy activists.
and participatory democracy
based on grassroots
, there aren’t exactly very defined values beyond support of this kind of democracy over more representative types. But some attempts have been made for define Popular democrat ideals based around the idea that this direct democracy is just a step for a full democracy
. Some proposals of Popular democratic common values have been:
Participatory budget
and the policies of the Porto Alegre Forum
are also associated with popular democracy by some left-wing authors.
As the ideal of Popular democracy came from prepositions of Populism (ex: popular rule in democracy is fairer than elitist parliament
s; decisions by general referendums are fairer than decisions by limited groups like parliaments and governments), and as platforms of certain groups claiming to be popular democratic are very similar to those of various democratic and undemocratic populist
movements, there is discussion on the relation between both political philosophies.
(who was connected to the Rockridge Institute
, a now defunct organization) and many other Progressive
, Liberal and Populist Democrats.
Taking advantage of the vagueness of the concept many parties in a wide range of ideologies call themselves Popular Democratic Party, Popular Democrat Party or People's Democratic Party, or even Democratic Popular Party or Democratic People's Party and support or claim to support popular sovereignty in some form of popular democracy.
Alistair McConnachie writes frequent articles supporting popular democracy
for the think tank Sovereignty, which he directs.
Self-described Populist Harry C. Boyte adopts some popular democrat themes in his support of grassroots democracy
.
The Nepalese Maoists also support a socialist, non-elitist, form of popular democracy
, which may be understood as a form of Maoist people's democracy but based more on popular participation and less on Vanguard parties
.
in Latter-Day Pamphlets
, who considered the popular democratic system too many rights given to uneducated masses of the people, as rule should be kept in the hands of
highly-educated people
and aristocrats
. This criticisms have been repeated numerous times as a way of showing popular democracy as just another word for mob rule.
The idea of majoritarian, popular-will based democracy has been accused of facilitating the persecution of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Other limitations of popular democracy have been indicated in its relation to other social movements (as feminism
and trade unionism).
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
based on referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
s and other devices of empowerment
Empowerment
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, racial, educational, gender or economic strength of individuals and communities...
and concretization of popular will. The concept evolved out of the political philosophy of Populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, as a fully democratic version of this popular empowerment ideology, but since it has become independent of it, and some even discuss if they are antagonistic or unrelated now (see Values). Though the expression has been used since the 19th century and may be applied to English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
politics, at least the notion (or the notion in its current form) is deemed recent and only recently got fully developed.
Early usages of the terms and/or the concept
Some figures, like TV documentaryDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
producer, director and writer Collin Thomas, see the Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
, resistance of groups to both the Stuart monarchy and Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
’s English Republic
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
as early popular democracy advocacy groups. Thomas sees the line of this early popular democracy going through the dissenting church, to the American Revolutionaries
Patriot (American Revolution)
Patriots is a name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation...
and later British trade unionism..
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
's Common Sense
Common Sense (pamphlet)
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. Common Sense, signed "Written by an Englishman", became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest...
is sometimes considered to defend a form of popular democracy. Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
was considered a defendant of popular democracy as a politician and president, and his presidency is considered as having made the transition from republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
to popular democracy in the United States
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
uses the word in Democratic Vistas
Democratic Vistas
Democratic Vistas is a major work of comparative politics and letters written by the American poet and author Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman does much to expound on the influence of the Louisiana Purchase and expansion on the American spirit, character, and body politic...
as description of the vague notion of masse democracy with universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
of a more or less direct and participatory
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
type he defended. He admitted that the system had some dangers, but it "practically justifies itself beyond the proudest claims and wildest hopes of its enthusiasts". William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
may be considered a popular democrat for his support of a democracy based on popular sovereignty .
Teddy Roosevelt is considered a defender of a popular democrat insurgency against big business and elitism.
In the end of the first half of the 20th century, the Christian democratic parties preferred the term "popular democrats" to Christian democrats.
Mid-20th century
In post-independence IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, popular democracy, together with economic
Economic liberalism
Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
and social liberalism
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
and hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India...
, is considered one of the main currents who tried to define Indian politics since 1947.
Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
is sometimes referred as having a history of Popular Democracy in parallel with the Pahlevi Monarchy
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
before the overthrowing of Mossadeq and reinstating of the Shah.
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...
was seen as a popular democrat presidential campaigner in 1968.
In 1969 Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
overthrows the pro-western monarchy and created a system he claims to be a popular democracy.
Late 20th century
Similarly to Gathafi, Hafez al-AssadHafez al-Assad
Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...
, officially ended the one party state of Ba'ath Syria created by the 1963 coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in 1970, declaring the creation of a multi-party popular democracy.
In 1975 Al Gathafi wrote The Green Book, where he defends his political system as a form of "direct and popular democracy" based on the will of the people instead of representative parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
s.
After the fall of Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
in 1986 it was created in the Philippines a research and advocacy centre called Institute for Popular Democracy
Institute for Popular Democracy
The Institute for Popular Democracy is non-profit research and advocacy institute. It houses a multi-disciplinary team of activist scholars who have multi-level engagements with civil society groups, reform-minded government officials and government agencies.IPD was founded in 1986, the year the...
, who frequently criticizes "elite politics" and defends reformist local social movement
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s.
Some Burkinabé
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
Communists founded a group who supported a Marxist-Leninist People's Democracy (though with a free-market economic plan) in 1989, the Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement
Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement
Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement was the ruling political party in Burkina Faso. It was founded in April 1989 by the Union of Burkinabè Communists, the Revolutionary Military Organization and factions from Communist Struggle Union - The Flame and Burkinabè Communist Group as a...
. In 1991 they renounced Marxism-Leninism and transformed their Marxism-Leninism into a form of popular democrat philosophy.
Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
's civil-society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
-centered democratic Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
was considered another form of popular democracy by some.
In 1996 the popular democratic Organization for Popular Democracy - Labour Movement created the Congress for Democracy and Progress
Congress for Democracy and Progress
The Congress for Democracy and Progress is the ruling political party in Burkina Faso. Its President is Roch Marc Christian Kaboré....
, being the current ruling party in Burkina Faso.
Today
The internetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
is sometimes considered as a vital part or an example of modern popular democratic practices .
Some Marxist groups consider that the current Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
is currently prepared for and wishes popular democracy (which in this context may be referring to Marxist People's Democracy) but that the "neoconservative design upon the region" and American power prevents this .
There are some signs interpreted by analysts as possibilities of popular democracy, in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
and Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
and Somaliland
Somaliland
Somaliland is an unrecognised self-declared sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent for a few days in 1960 as the State of...
.
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
is sometimes considered to either be practicing or simulating popular democracy.
In 2003 it was published one of the main book-length appraisals of popular democracy, Hilary Wainwright
Hilary Wainwright
Hilary Wainwright is a British socialist and feminist, best known for being editor of Red Pepper magazine.-Personal life:Hilary Wainwright's father was the Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, and her brother, Martin, is the Northern Editor of The Guardian, to which she occasionally contributes.She...
's Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy, a criticism of both Social Democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
and Big government
Big government
Big government is a term generally used by political conservatives, laissez-faire advocates, or libertarians to describe a government or public sector which they consider to be excessively large, corrupt and inefficient, or inappropriately involved in certain areas of public policy or the private...
and Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
and Big Business
Big Business
Big business is a term used to describe large corporations, in either an individual or collective sense. The term first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at...
.
The Chinese democracy movement
Chinese democracy movement
The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...
sometimes chooses a popular democrat system as the easiest democratic model from which the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
could evolve out of the current one-party system ("people's democracy"), something which has already been criticized by some Chinese democracy activists.
Values
As Popular democracy is an ideal of directDirect democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
and participatory democracy
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
based on grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
, there aren’t exactly very defined values beyond support of this kind of democracy over more representative types. But some attempts have been made for define Popular democrat ideals based around the idea that this direct democracy is just a step for a full democracy
Inclusive Democracy
Inclusive Democracy is a political theory and political project that aims for direct democracy, economic democracy in a stateless, moneyless and marketless economy, self-management and ecological democracy...
. Some proposals of Popular democratic common values have been:
- Civil rightsCivil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
(freedom of speech, debate and enquiry) - Direct democracyDirect democracyDirect democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
- respectable, biasMedia biasMedia bias refers to the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the...
-free mass mediaMass mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles... - Economic democracyEconomic democracyEconomic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
- Equality before the lawEquality before the lawEquality before the law or equality under the law or legal egalitarianism is the principle under which each individual is subject to the same laws....
- Popular sovereigntyPopular sovereigntyPopular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the political principle that the legitimacy of the state is created and sustained by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with Republicanism and the social contract...
- Anti-partisanship
Participatory budget
Participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget...
and the policies of the Porto Alegre Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
are also associated with popular democracy by some left-wing authors.
As the ideal of Popular democracy came from prepositions of Populism (ex: popular rule in democracy is fairer than elitist parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
s; decisions by general referendums are fairer than decisions by limited groups like parliaments and governments), and as platforms of certain groups claiming to be popular democratic are very similar to those of various democratic and undemocratic populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
movements, there is discussion on the relation between both political philosophies.
Support
This ideal is currently supported by Glenn SmithGlenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith is an author, activist and political consultant.-Biography:Smith was a journalist for the Houston Chronicle from 1979 to 1985 and the Houston Post from 1985 to 1988. He covered state and national political affairs before leaving journalism to work for then-Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby...
(who was connected to the Rockridge Institute
Rockridge Institute
The Rockridge Institute was an American non-profit research and progressive think tank founded in 1997 and located in Berkeley, California from 2003 until April 30, 2008. Its stated goal was to strengthen democracy by providing intellectual support to the progressive community...
, a now defunct organization) and many other Progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
, Liberal and Populist Democrats.
Taking advantage of the vagueness of the concept many parties in a wide range of ideologies call themselves Popular Democratic Party, Popular Democrat Party or People's Democratic Party, or even Democratic Popular Party or Democratic People's Party and support or claim to support popular sovereignty in some form of popular democracy.
Alistair McConnachie writes frequent articles supporting popular democracy
for the think tank Sovereignty, which he directs.
Self-described Populist Harry C. Boyte adopts some popular democrat themes in his support of grassroots democracy
Grassroots democracy
Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as practical is shifted to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization: principle of subsidiarity....
.
The Nepalese Maoists also support a socialist, non-elitist, form of popular democracy
, which may be understood as a form of Maoist people's democracy but based more on popular participation and less on Vanguard parties
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
.
Criticism
Whitman wrote Democratic Vistas in answer to criticism of universal suffrage and full democracy of Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
in Latter-Day Pamphlets
Latter-Day Pamphlets
Latter-Day Pamphlets was a series of "pamphlets" published by Thomas Carlyle in 1850, in vehement denunciation of what he believed to be the political, social, and religious imbecilities and injustices of the period...
, who considered the popular democratic system too many rights given to uneducated masses of the people, as rule should be kept in the hands of
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
highly-educated people
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
and aristocrats
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
. This criticisms have been repeated numerous times as a way of showing popular democracy as just another word for mob rule.
The idea of majoritarian, popular-will based democracy has been accused of facilitating the persecution of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Other limitations of popular democracy have been indicated in its relation to other social movements (as feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and trade unionism).
See also
- PopulismPopulismPopulism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
- Popular Democratic Party (disambiguation)
- People's Democratic Party (disambiguation)
- Democratic Popular Party (disambiguation)
- Democratic People's Party (disambiguation)