The Future of Freedom

Just finished “The Future of Freedom”, by Fareed Zakaria, which lays out an unintuitive truth: Democracy is good, to a point. More democracy, more say, more control actually has lead to the fall of countries, institutions and professions. The elite of yesteryear (dictators, smokey-roomed political puppeteers, blue-blooded investment bankers) were far from perfect, but their ultra-reformed, ultra-democrative replacements are paralyzed by endless accountability and pandering to thousands upon thousands of individual and minority interests. The “Nobless Oblige” of leaders has been replaced, in institutions throughout the world, with the incoherent ramblings of the unwashed masses.

Zakaria assumes from the beginning that democracy is good. When used correctly, it is the ultimate in legitimate government and control. Democratization of politics has lead to every American being able to vote, and of economics has lead to every American able to invest in stocks and access high returns. When implemented correctly, with the right characteristics and checks and balances, democracy and democritization provides the people control of their government and institutions and affords long term sustainability. This he says is the right democracy – Liberal (constitutional) democracy. Britain and the US, much of the West, have created democracy checked by a constitution, multiple controlling factions, political parties and indirect voting. These and other controls neutralize the inherent destroyers of democracy: nationalism, religious zealotry, extremism.

But what of reality. Zakaria handles democracy, it’s blessings and curses, on three different levels: Global, national and institutional/professional. In each case, he points out the democratization can be good, but also, lead to less control, less openness and decrease in satisfaction. Our tendency on the last 40 years has been to slowly, but surely, go overboard and reduce the effectiveness of our needed institutions.

For nations, democracy has its limited place. “Democracy” describes only the mechanics by which leaders are selected and decisions are made. The nature of protections in the society, the freedoms of the people, the rights to free speech, practice of religion, protections from search and seizure are all determined by the nature of the laws – whether they are liberal or illiberal. Dictatorial regimes can provide a more liberal society than democratic ones – as in the case of Singapore where its dictatorial leader upholds a rule of law providing for many of the freedoms we associate with modern democracies.

Furthermore, to arrive finally at democracy, most countries must go through a “twisted path”, a long period where they build up the institutions and wealth that will make their transition to democracy possible. Countries like Vietnam and China are controlled by regimes that are far from completely free, but provide important protections for the growth of commerce. This expansion of commerce is a critical leg in the creation of the checks and balances needed for democracy to evolve. For countries with over $6000 per capita income, with a strong established business class (bourgeous) and independent religious institution, the switch from monarchy or dictatorship to constitutional democracy can be painful but successful. What these countries have are institutions, separate from the government, that fight for liberal freedoms – checking the control of the government, pushing reforms and slowly pushing states towards democracies. We see this being created in Vietnam, China and Russia.

Zakaria wrote the book before the invasion of Iraq, but predicted with haunting accuracy the problems of pushing democracy on a society without the necessary institutions, economy or fundamental understanding of it. Now, we are fighting against the nationalism, hate and racisms that often bubbles to the surface in under-formed democracies. Politicians, hungry for power, resort to religious and nationalist issues to gain support, dividing the populous and pushing people towards radical views – Think Germany in 1930’s. The ultimate example of the illiberal nature of democracy is when Greeks voted to hang Socrates, one of the most brilliant minds in history.

Just as checks and balances and limiting democracy is necessary in government, Zakaria goes though numerous other examples of how too much control can destroy. His most meaningful example is politics, where he talks about how, since the “democratization” of congress through the sunshine laws, all lobbyists can see each and every individual vote of each congress person. Even the framers of the constitution saw this as a massive danger and put some protections in our system for this. But with the elimination of these changes, the inmates now run the nuthouse. And what has ensued is the terrible fear that any congress person has of cutting any budget items, fearful that lobbyists will find out and not give them necessary funds to get re-elected. As a result – deadlock in congress and no spending cuts in the last 20 years.

Overall, a strong book and well worth reading.