OPTIONAL THEME:
KNOWLEDGE AND POLITICS
DEMOCRACY AND INFORMED CITIZENSHIP
November 13, 2024—President Biden welcomed President-elect Donald J. Trump back to the White House and spoke about a smooth transition between the two administrations.
Photo credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
“Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
WORST FORM OF GOVERNMENT?
CLASS ACTIVITY i
A student volunteer reads aloud Churchill’s famous quote. Then Students work in trios to grapple with the following generative questions:
What are some of the essential elements of a democracy?
Apart from democracy, what other forms of government have been tried from time to time?
What are some of the specific advantages and disadvantages of the other forms of government you identified?
On balance is democracy the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried?
The reporting back and class discussion lends itself well to brainstorming with terms written and positioned in relation to each other in boxes on a whiteboard. Ensure that that the discussion somewhat encapsulates the grand sweep of history, and takes a global. as well as national perspective. Of course, there is enough here for weeks of discussion; but set a 20 minute limit (with a 3 minute warning). Respect the time limit even if passions are fired.
FROM STATE OF NATURE TO SOCIAL CONTRACT
CLASS ACTIVITY ii
Invite a student who has some stage presence to read Hobbes’ famous quote about the natural state of mankind left to its own devices in the absence of the ultimate authority of sovereign government. Hobbes characterizes this as “a war of all against all.”
After that, show the short video about Thomas Hobbes and sovereignty.
“In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. ”
Pre-prepare four cards each printed with a quote from one of the thinkers presented below. Assign the quotes to four randomly selected student groups:
Harari group (2018)
Locke group (1689)
Sapolsky group (2001)
Rousseau group (1762)
Allow students a timed seven minutes of discussion using the generative questions. Since the groups only examined their assigned quote, the spokesperson will perform a public reading of the quote and then share some insights from the group conversation. The teacher should keep the class discussion session on task. It may or not be necessary to steer students towards the relevance of the historical context of the perspectives.
GENERATIVE QUESTIONS FOR STATE OF NATURE
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
Without strong government would we really revert to a war of all against all, where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short?”
How does the perspective expressed in your assigned quote inform your understanding of what it means to be human?
To what extent is thinking about the natural order of things relevant to political discussion?
FOUR STATE OF NATURE QUOTES
“A good rule of thumb is ‘Biology enables, culture forbids.’ Biology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It’s culture that obligates people to realize some possibilities while forbidding others. Biology enables women to have children — some cultures oblige women to realize this possibility. Biology enables men to enjoy sex with one another — some cultures forbid them to realize this possibility.”
“To understand political power... we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.”
Baboons live in big, complex social groups, and the population I went to study lived like kings... The baboons work maybe four hours a day to feed themselves; hardly anyone is likely to eat them. Basically, baboons have about a half dozen solid hours of sunlight a day to devote to being rotten to each other.
Sapolsky, Robert M. (2001: 15 ) A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons. Simon and Schuster. New York.
“L’homme est né libre et partout il est dans les fers.
Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
”
SOCIAL CONTRACT: AUTHORIZING SOVEREIGN REPRESENTATIVES TO ACT ON OUR BEHALF
Following the class discussion, use the ant “superorganism” image and the “sapiens rule the world” Harari quote to conclude the state of nature/human predicament introductory theme.
Next, inform students that we will explore the notion of “ruling by proxy”—voting for sovereign representatives to act on our behalf.
Worker ants build a bridge with their bodies to reach food on a higher branch in Mataram, Indonesia Photo source: Adhi Prayoga
“Fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states. Such myths give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers. Ants and bees can also work together in huge numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives. Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can do so only with small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately. Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers.
That’s why Sapiens rule the world, whereas ants eat our leftovers and chimps are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.”
RULE BY PROXY
It is all very interesting to reflect on humanity in a hypothetical state of nature; but here we are! There is no turning back, and there are no golden dawns. So, where does that leave us?
Whether it was to avoid a Hobbesian nasty, brutish war of all against all or to maximize Locke’s freedom within the bounds of security, most of us find ourselves entangled in nation states where there are rulers and the ruled. At this historical juncture the majority of states have become variants on the liberal democracy theme based on representation, or government by proxy.
RULERS: Ghana Parliament House in Accra. Photo source: Ghana GSA
THE RULED: Hundreds of people gather near the petrol station that exploded in Accra, Ghana, which killed at least 150 people in March 2015. Photo credit: © AP
Informed citizenship class activity iii
Begin by reminding students that citizenship entails rights and responsibilities. Then ask a student to read out this “citizenship challenge” quote from a recent report from the British House of Lords.
“Although citizenship is a complex concept, what we term “the citizenship challenge” is refreshingly simple: how can an environment be created in which everyone feels a sense of belonging to the country of which they are a citizen, with a stake in it and a responsibility towards it? ”
Queen Elizabeth II delivering the 2019 Queen's Speech in the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster in London. Photo source; PA
It is worth mentioning that the House of Lords is an unelected body and the report was written after the Brexit referendum which was characterized by populist anti-immigrant fervor. The legitimacy of “the citizenship challenge” lies its recognition of the consequences of alienating citizens who feel that do not belong our have a stake in the country.
French Swiss political activist, Benjamin Constant provides a good introduction to representation in a liberal democracy. Invite students to work in pairs to discuss the Constant’s 1819 quotation. When consensus is reached they should produce succinct, co-authored written responses to the following questions:
According to Benjamin Constant, why has the citizenry agreed willingly to be governed by proxy?
How does the idea of stewardship come into play?
What should occur if the ruler betrays the trust of those being ruled?
“The representative system is nothing but an organization by means of which a nation charges a few individuals to do what it cannot or does not wish to do herself. Poor men look after their own business; rich men hire stewards. This is the history of ancient and modern nations. The representative system is a proxy given to a certain number of men by the mass of the people who wish their interests to be defended and who nevertheless do not have the time to defend them themselves. But, unless they are idiots, rich men who employ stewards keep a close watch on whether these stewards are doing their duty, lest they should prove negligent, corruptible, or incapable; and, in order to judge the management of these proxies, the landowners, if they are prudent, keep themselves well-informed about affairs, the management of which they entrust to them. Similarly, the people who, in order to enjoy the liberty which suits them, resort to the representative system, must exercise an active and constant surveillance over their representatives, and reserve for themselves, at times which should not be separated by too lengthy intervals, the right to discard them if they betray their trust, and to revoke the powers which they might have abused.”
INFORMED CITIZENSHIP AND THE TRUTH
The willing submission to state sovereignty keeps us safe and secure, and enables us to get on with our lives largely unencumbered by the responsibilities of governance. But rule by representation fragile and has very often been betrayed by corruption and/or tyranny.
“A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.”
“The well-informed citizenry is in danger of becoming the well-amused audience.”
“Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”
CLOSURE AND NEXT STEPS
The celebrated Thomas Jefferson quote, together with Al Gore’s contemporary rejoinder and historian Timothy Snyder’s urgent call to action, close our democracy and informed citizenship unit. The aim of this brief flirtation with political fundamentals is to encourage students to take a step back from some of their own (perhaps, previously unexamined) political perspectives, and do some meta-thinking about where those ideas came from. This will be addressed directly in the Power and Truth unit (where we will hear more from Timothy Snyder) but first let’s visit the terrifying dystopian world of Orwellian Newspeak.
In March 2018 Chinese president Xi Jinping won unanimous approval at the National People’s Congress for his reappointment.
Photo source: Ju Peng/Xinhua via AP