Democracy to Chaos: Chaos to Anarchy

Summary

•   Liberal democracy was sold as a system founded on the slogan “government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” It was supported by liberal values and by governance, economic, and diplomatic systems.
• However, liberal democracy has certain structural flaws that have largely been ignored or sold as the beauty of the system.
• There is no room for failure, because if people fail to introduce a new system, the political elite (it does not matter who is in power) will continue to exploit people.

AI Generated Summary

Freedom, justice, social justice, and a secure, better life are basic human rights. Since ancient times, every society and state has been built around these rights. From caves to modern societies, people have been drawn by the promise of these rights. To satisfy these rights, humans have long devised systems to deliver on them. Over time, they have experimented with different systems and continue to do so. However, since the 20^th century, liberal democracy has been widely adopted and practiced around the world. Western countries, experts, and philosophers have presented it as the best system. They even raised the slogan of the end of history on the shoulders of liberal democracy.

Liberal democracy was sold as a system founded on the slogan “government of the people, for the people, and by the people.” It was supported by liberal values and by governance, economic, and diplomatic systems. Constitutions were constructed to run democratic states. However, liberal democracy has certain structural flaws that have largely been ignored or sold as the beauty of the system. This strategy could not hold for long, and its flaws eventually became apparent.

First, in liberal democracy, the success of the opposition depends on the government’s failure, or the success of one party depends on the failure of others. Thus, the opposition does everything to destabilize, undermine, or distract the government. It does not let the government deliver. To ensure the government’s failure, the opposition resorts to agitation, protests, and marches. A government that came to power to serve the people becomes preoccupied with the opposition, rather than taking action to solve the people’s problems. The government cannot devote much time to the country’s development and the welfare of its people. Moreover, the government gets involved in settling scores with the opposition and tries to weaken or eliminate it. When the opposition comes to power, the same pattern continues. Thus, working for the people is lost somewhere.

However, it is interesting that both the opposition and the government fight in the name of the people while ignoring them. In their fight, they put people on the back burner. This happens in almost all democracies around the world. Pakistan has also been witnessing this phenomenon for many years.

Second, democracy has become a tool of divide-and-rule. Political parties deploy it perfectly, and people get trapped without even realizing it. They divide people in the name of ideology, ethnicity, language, and sub-national identity, and sell them dreams. They lure people with visions of better days and create an illusion by painting a fanciful picture of the future. They use ethnicity or sub-national identity to play on people’s emotions. They paint other sub-nationalities or ethnicities as exploiters and promise to protect their rights at any cost. Some sharp minds target marginalized communities, raise slogans about their welfare, and fight for their rights. They engage people for their own benefit. Religion, or a religious touch, is another tool they use to fool people and attract the masses.