Democracy

In one sense our society has made moral progress in the area of politics. There is much more support for democracy now than in the past. Democracy is the only system of government that treats all people equally under the law. It also provides for the peaceful transition of political power. The people can replace those who govern them if they believe that they are not being governed wisely. People who oppose the current government can attempt to persuade large numbers of people that their favored alternative principles are the ones that should be used by the government.

Democracy has its opponents on the left and the right. The right generally oppose democracy in order to prevent the majority from voting in favor of redistribution. There is an opinion on the left, which is increasingly unpopular, that democracy is just a sham and that we need violent revolution in order to establish their idea of economic justice. In practice it is not easy to determine whether a particular person is such an opponent. Some authors will at times call for revolution and at others appear to support democracy.

The philosopher Karl Popper, in his book The Open Society and Its Enemies, faults many Marxists for this ambiguity. He pointed out that this enabled opponents of democracy on the right to justify political suppression on the basis that it was necessary in order to prevent a violent revolution by Marxists. He suggests that they would do a better job of accomplishing their aims if they would state unequivocally that violent revolution is only justified if the people are denied a peaceful way of accomplishing their aims.

I am much more likely to believe that redistribution is counter-productive. However, I don't see dictators as reliable implementers of free market economic policies. Even if they were, I would be inclined to oppose political suppression. Once you use or support the use of violence to accomplish your political ends, you give up the right to morally oppose the use of violence to oppose those same ends.

Democracy is necessary in order to enable the people to see to it that their government follows generally accepted moral and ethical principles. This is true whether those values are socialistic or capitalistic.