THRUST FOR FREEDOM - No. 7

What is
TRUE DEMOCRACY?

The word DEMOCRACY comes from the.Greek words which mean “rule of the people.” However, the practice of DEMOCRACY can be no better than the understanding of the concept of “rule of the people.” Over the past two thousand years, most people have come to accept without question or reservation the idea that DEMOCRACY means the ability of the people to choose their mode of social organization by means of majority vote.

The political concept of DEMOCRACY arose as a consequence of counting yeas and nays on particular issues and then selecting the men who would decide how issues were to be resolved. Whichever man could muster the choice of more persons than his opposition could muster became the dominant person for the society. This was and is nothing more than an application of the old dictum, might makes right.

This concept of DEMOCRACY (which prevails to this day) relies upon the ability of the winning political leaders to count upon the support of more people than their losing opponents. However, this concept does nothing to ensure the protection of the property*⁽²⁾, hence, the freedom*⁽³⁾ of those who may disagree.
Furthermore, those who may be in the majority with respect to a given issue or political candidate will eventually find themselves in the minority with respect to other issues or candidates. In the long run, therefore, everyone loses. This concept of DEMOCRACY eventually breaks down and leads to a destruction of freedom.

However, before the word DEMOCRACY is hastily scrapped, the concept of “rule of the people” should be reexamined. If “rule of the people” is interpreted as “self-rule,” then the word DEMOCRACY becomes fully compatible with the definition of freedom published in this series.*⁽³⁾ Self-rule means simply that the individual controls, in full, himself and his own derivatives (property*⁽²⁾) and does not control others and their derivatives (properties*⁽²⁾).

How does self-rule come about in the real world? Through the unhampered market economy, of course. In the world of free and unregulated exchanges, buyers and sellers can make contractual exchanges on whatever terms they desire. (Note that everyone is a seller of his own services and a buyer of the goods and services he desires to have.) Buyers and sellers always have a means to choose for themselves and not for others. The choice of one is not a command to another. This is fully developed in the theory of the Austrian school of economics.† This economic philosophy is fully compatible with and forms a major portion of the concept of total capitalism.*⁽⁴⁾

Thus, TRUE DEMOCRACY comes about through economic means, namely, market action, rather than through political coercion, or majority rule.

THE TRUE DEMOCRACY, THEN IS THE FREE UNHAMPERED MARKET ECONOMY.

† See especially the works of Ludwig von Mises.

* see THRUST FOR FREEDOM issue number indicated in parenthesis.