3 Things to Note About Democracy

Published on November 6, 2024, filed under Everything Else (RSS feed for all categories).

The United States just elected a convicted criminal for president, someone who is unfit for office for multiple reasons, including his malicious intentions and insufficient abilities as shown by countless false and misleading statements.

We might say, cool, that’s democracy, but that is cheap and stupid. If we think democracy is so easy, we don’t think hard enough.

1. Democracy Depends on Education

For democracy to work, people need to be educated. If people are not educated enough to know basic facts about the natural sciences, history, and domestic and international politics, they are not educated enough to make informed decisions. This applies to decisions they make for themselves but also—and especially—to decisions they make that affect others.

2. Democracy Depends on Constructive Intentions

For democracy to work, people need to have constructive intentions. That is because the idea of democracy is a constructive one, and because it’s not the point of it to destroy itself. If people use their right to vote with destructive intentions, just to be against something or someone, they do not have the right attitude for a democracy—but for another form of state in which they would typically not have a say, on anything. For them, everything may be quite in order then, but we’re not talking about democracy anymore.

3. Democracy Depends on the Quality of the Candidates

For democracy to work, the candidates need to be educated and well-meaning, too. This includes that they’re competent and law-abiding, which should probably rule out convicted criminals. ^* For the highest offices, we may want to have even higher ambitions, and have solid professional and ethical standards in place that candidates should meet. If candidates can be of any or no quality, people and country accept to be governed at any or no quality, at the potential risk of losing anything and everything.

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This is a sketch, however I believe in each of the three points: We need educated people to make educated choices; we need people to have a constructive attitude if we want constructive outcomes; and we need people of high competence and character in office, measured at bars that are raised as the offices carry more responsibility.

I don’t deem it to require much to tell that not doing either of this will sooner or later destroy a democracy. Not doing any of this is destroying a democracy.

And yet the main point here is agency. Democracy depends on everyone. If you aren’t educated enough to be able to tell whether groups in your country are being discriminated or whether the world faces ecological collapse, then don’t wait until you get educated. Inform yourself, and test your understanding. If you aren’t well-meaning enough to grant other living beings to be treated well or the environment to be protected, then, my gosh, I don’t know what to say other than that includes you, too—you should be treated well, too. And if you and we together don’t have standards for candidates, then apart from finally beginning to set expectations, the very least we can do is not vote for those who are obviously incompetent or destructive. Which brings us back to education and intentions.

^* I believe in respecting most criminals and giving them second chances. That I say “most” is already complicating matters; and it’s getting more complicated when we look at under what circumstances criminals could fit a public office. I would submit, however, that a conviction should be a disqualifying event for a certain time after conviction.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a frontend engineering leader and tech author/publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead for companies like Google and as an engineering manager for companies like Miro, I’m a contributor to several web standards, and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development (and engineering management), but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (Be critical, interpret charitably, and give feedback.)