The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in his book Politics that "man, is by nature, a political animal, and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless is either low in the scale of humanity or above it." Note that he says that we humans are political, not social. Bees are social. Ants are social. Even birds are social. But humans are political. What does that exactly mean?
I am currently listening to another Great Courses lecture series called "Democracy and Its Alternatives", hosted by Dr. Ethan Hollander, who is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Dr. Hollander defines politics as "the way groups of people make decisions, even when people in the group want different things." Humans largely live, work, and exist in groups. We are by nature communal. And as I have stated in a number of previous posts, we are actually happier when we are part of a community. But as Dr. Hollander emphasizes in his lecture series, being part of a group requires us to make trade-offs. When we are working in a group, we have to balance our own self-interests with those of the broader group. How we do that - how the group balances these competing interests between members - is exactly what politics is all about! Dr. Hollander says, "Politics is how we may make decisions in a group when the individuals in the group want different things."
Think about it. Suppose you and your best friend decide to order a pizza. There are lots of decisions to be made. Should you order a thick or thin crust pizza? How large of a pizza should you order? Which restaurant do you want to order from? What toppings do you want to add to the pizza? It's usually fairly straightforward to make all of these decisions when you are only with one other person. And, if there are disagreements, you can easily make trade-offs (for example, you can order sausage on your pizza if your friend doesn't like pepperoni). But what happens when you are trying to order a pizza for a larger group? Unless you order more than one pizza (which may be necessary, depending on the size of the group), you will have to make trade-offs. There's a good chance not everyone will like the same kind of pizza. You may actually have to take a vote on what kind of pizza to order with the majority vote making the final decision.
Winston Churchill reportedly once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." That may not have been his exact quote. During a speech in the House of Commons on November 11, 1947, Churchill did, as a matter of record, say, "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..." Regardless, the meaning behind the words are perhaps more important than the words themselves. In essence, Churchill is stating that as a matter of record, democracy isn't perfect.
Going back to the pizza example above, what happens if the group votes to order a pizza with the classic "meat lover's pizza" (ham, sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto) and someone in the group happens to be a vegetarian? Or to use a less extreme example, what if the group votes to order a pepperoni pizza and one individual hates pepperoni? The group overall is better off, but at least one individual is left worse off.
Even the original representatives to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in the early days of the United States of America understood this concept. They wanted to avoid setting up a government that would create a "tyranny of the majority", which refers to a situation in which the preferences and interests of the majority dominate the decisions of the whole group, potentially sidelining or repressing minority groups. James Madison wrote about the "tyranny of the majority" (even if he didn't use those exact words) in Federalist No. 10. He wrote, "If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote: It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the constitution. When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government on the other hand enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest, both the public good and the rights of other citizens."
Madison contrasted a pure democracy with that of a representative democracy (i.e. a republic) when he wrote, "The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic, are first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended." He later suggested that when representatives are elected by the citizens from a larger geographical area, then the "tyranny of the majority" is even less likely to occur.
Interestingly enough, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt recently wrote an excellent book (Tyranny of the Minority) that argues that our system of government has potentially resulted in a "tyranny of the minority", in which a smaller faction ends up making all of the decisions for a much larger group. The book builds upon their previous book on a similar topic, How Democracies Die. No matter which side of the political fence you stand upon, both of these books are compelling reads.
I don't necessarily want to end today's post talking about U.S. politics, so I won't. I think the take-home message from today is as follows. Unless you work by yourself with no one else around, you are likely to be a part of a group. As such, as a member of a group, there is no way that you will be able to escape politics. Politics, again, is about how a group makes decisions when the individuals in the group want different things. Politics, then, is a normal part of our everyday lives. We are, as Aristotle suggested so many centuries ago, political animals!
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