Professor Bob

Pound the Nail, One More Time

Democracy is a pretty good system, the best we have tried in recorded history, depending on how you want to measure things.

If individual liberty, and freedom of association and expression matter to you, then it doesn’t get any better. If social engineering and conformity to the norm turn your crank, then some form of autocracy is where you want to go.  All forms of gov’mint have their Achilles heel, a way in which the system can be subverted by a relatively small number of people.  A democracy can be derailed by special interest groups, associations that can deliver a modest sized block of votes in return for a “consideration,” such as funding for a cultural center. Combined with general apathy and low voter turnout, these special interest groups can hold a balance of power well out of proportion to the actual numbers. Suppose the voter turnout is 35% of 200,000 voters, then the number of voters casting a ballot is only 70,000. A margin of victory of 5% requires a swing vote of only 3,500 ballots. If a special interest group comprising 2% of the population can deliver all their members to a political party, they can deliver 4,000 votes, enough to swing the election one way or another. If I can do the math, then so can any old political hack, looking to win any way he can. “Sure, we’ll fund your community center as part of our cultural enrichment program, and given the special architectural needs of your building, I’m sure we can accommodate a short list of acceptable contractors.” If the short list turns out to have only members of the special interest group, that is to be expected. After all, it’s a cultural thing. So, a 4,000 member cultural association gets a multi-million dollar community center, built at a profit by its own members. The politico wins the election and gets a sizeable campaign donation, and the 200,000 residents get to contribute $5.00 or $8.00 each to the welfare of an invisible minority. Of course, suspicious minds might consider this type of arrangement to be ethically somewhat questionable, so care is taken that the connection between the politico and the special interest group be minimized. Naturally, though, he would be invited to the inauguration, and get to take his shoes off and wear a funny hat. It’s a cultural thing, doncha know. Multiply this by several special interest groups and it becomes clear why unseating an incumbent member of parliament, an incumbent senator or a sitting congressman, becomes a difficult proposition. 

Well, the answer would seem to be, on the face of it, for the silent majority to work together to protect the interests of the society at large. Isn’t that reasonable?? Hmmm. In Toronto, there is an annual beauty contest in which the “Queen” of a particular cultural group is chosen to “reign” over a cultural festival. The participants in the beauty contest are limited to members of that ethnic group and the voters who chose the “Queen” are also limited to members of that particular culture. If your skin is the wrong color or you don’t speak the language, then you are actively discouraged from joining the association, participating in the contest or voting. It’s a cultural thing, doncha know. Okay, let’s form a WASP cultural association, have our own contest and elect our own “Queen” to “reign” over our own cultural festival. Just watch what happens. There will be 17 dozen gov’mint agencies in there, laying charges of racism, giving media interviews, denying permits and drawing comparisons with the KKK. An elderly gentleman, a member of a visible minority, once told me that racism was a whites only problem. A man such as himself, could not, by definition, be a racist. I told him that that was a racist thing to say, because it discriminated on the basis of color. He shook his head, said nothing and walked away. Clearly, I missed the fine points. Hmmmm. Who says we don’t have a culture?? 

Professor Bob