Ali Al Hadi Ismail | Staff Writer
Pure democracy traces back to the early ages of humanity. The fountainhead of well-documented democracy came back in Athens during the classical age, 507 years BC. It was the time where philosophical movements were tracing their ways across the history of civilization. Cleisthenes, an Athenian political leader credited with institutional reforms, was the main contributor to the Athenian pure system of ruling and was regarded as the father of democracy. He enhanced the political system of Athens by granting ordinary people (men only) the right to have a role in decision-making, in contrast to the power being in the hands of individuals with aristocratic backgrounds.
The earliest well-recorded form of pure democracy was derived from the assembly (Ecclesia) as the basic and the most functional unit of the political system in Athens. Ecclesia, also called the assembly, was composed of all Athenian male citizens who were clinching citizenship and eligible to share in the political scene regardless of their economic class. The power of Ecclesia was based on the general gathering of citizens (beyond the age of 18) and was held several times a month. Ecclesia is at odds with today’s definition of a parliament, whereby the assembly members are not elected but composed of all Athenian people who have the right to attend the gathering and depict the political course. The Ecclesia, therefore, was entitled to take crucial decrees such as proclaiming war decisions, legislating and enacting laws, bestowing on Athenian citizenship to foreigners, trying criminal issues and disputed manners to trial, electing Strategos (the Athenian military generals), and more. Another establishment in Athens concerned with direct democracy is the Boule, an assembly of 500 Athenian citizens responsible for daily-based concerns and for drafting proposals to be discussed at the level of Ecclesia.
A further vital organ of the democratic body of Athens was the law court. It was a broad jury composed of large numbers of jurors chosen randomly by lots on an annual basis and responsible for making judgments concerning dealing with criminal and disputed issues. The direct democracy of Athens was not embedded in Ecclesia only, where assembled people decided the course but also across the establishments of the Boule and the court which handled the entire reign with regards to politics. Besides, pure democracy was also conducted in the classical Roman civilization during the era of the Roman Republic enclosing the Mediterranean around 507 years BC, and in contemporary Switzerland as well as some other states.
In the region of criticism, the above-mentioned examples could pose a clear verdict that this system of people’s governance could be ideally applied in its current dimensions and could even be bolstered by the recent technologies, which make up the electronic direct democracy. E-democracy is a way of facilitating the process of conducting a purely democratic system through the use of internet-based lots for the sake of better numerical involvement in the political sphere.
E-democracy could stem from information and communication technology such as special databases that secure encrypted e-voting. This blended form could be held to manifest better participation and a direct involvement in enacting laws, constitutional alternations that include people’s wills, better problem-solving strategies, social justice, and more. Using the concept of e-democracy in the field of action would call off the need for representatives and embrace a kind of political perfection. To add, this variant of direct democracy could propound a more realistic ruling than the traditional conception of pure democracy itself, demonstrated by gathering. For instance, just a few thousand Athenians were recognized as politically active out of a total amounting to 30,000 eligible people entitled to have hands in Ecclesia. This issue could be potentially encountered by deploying an electronic direct democratic system.
Pure democracy additionally can perfectly blend with the left-libertarian political concepts. This could permit the Internationale to unify the world in a single system by comprising individual freedoms fused with collective responsibility and social justice, far away from the devastating power of capitalism. Left-wing libertarianism is a philosophical conceptualization that approaches the social, political, and economical system. It complies with all leftist principles related to anti-authority and personal properties.
The direct democratic system could fit Libertarian Communism: an anti-statist which overlaps with anarchism and creates a free society of equally distributed powers and freedoms by advocating for pure democracy and human values. Some movements go further to eliminate currencies and money from the economic system which offers more degrees of equality.
It doesn’t take much thought to infer that the world scene is controlled in a way that neglects people’s powers and preferences. The process of inserting a Western-Style democracy has failed so far to stabilize the sphere. Furthermore, this approach is charged with splitting Korea, ruining Syria, and blowing up every single area in this world.
Nevertheless, I am wondering how much the Western democracy and their faded freedoms are zestfully dynamic except for Mohammad Al-Durrah, a 12 years old angel who was murdered by Israeli forces in front of that camera of France 2. The scene of Mohammad crouching behind a white barrel with his father trying to shield him just before being shot from Israeli positions reduces me to tears every time it pops up in my mind and is sufficient to refute the overall conceptions of freedoms.
Based on the foregoing examples, we can read between the lines the urgent requirement of a system that offers social justice and deter any attempt of bias. It could be only done by utilizing people’s direct power for the sake of humanity manifested by pure democracy.
So could the notion of direct democracy notch towards the world’s political system concerning the international stage of power?