"present and foster criticism of modern democracy … [that is] aimed at the philosophical foundations of democracy, the popular conception of democracy, the practice of representative government through democratic elections, and the social and intellectual environment generated by democratic thought and practice in contemporary America" (p. 1).I hesitate to offer a summary of the book for fear of oversimplifying its complex, historically sensitive argument. Very crudely put, Prof. Samons:
[1] points out that the concept of demokratia was by no means central to Athens' self-perception; not only did most other poleis exercise a fairly substantial level of popular control over state institutions, but the Athenians themselves were willing to abandon their system of government (following the urging of Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War, p. 91), at least temporarily.
[2] notes that, to the extent Athens was a popular democracy, the people (demos) were repeatedly willing to engage in militaristic, even predatory action, without necessarily taking longer-term interests into account (most devastatingly, in their inability to deal decisively with the eventually fatal threat posed by Philip of Macedon).
[3] argues that the willingness of the Athenian demos to punish, even execute, their generals (the strategoi) for failures meant that over the course of time, the number of Athenians able and willing to risk speaking against the demos shrank; in other words, Athenian politicians were increasingly unwilling to rock the boat and criticize the demos, thus reducing the ability of the polis to act decisively when needed.
[4] contrasts the attitudes of Pericles and Socrates towards the state and government, but then contrasts the willingness of the two men to put their own lives at stake for the sake of their values with the attitudes of later Athenian demagogoi and modern American politicians towards satisfying (at least rhetorically) the will of the people.
[5] compares the broader socio-religious context within which democracy existed in Athens with the current situation in the United States.
Prof. Samons addresses the last point most thoroughly in the last chapter of the book, which is full of very interesting ideas. He argues, for instance, for the centrality of religion in every aspect of Athenian life (a fact that may seem surprising to people today):
"So thoroughly did matters relating to the gods suffuse Athenian life that there was no identifiable "secular" realm (in the modern sense) … For the Athenians, every acceptable aspect of their world was associated with the gods in some way …Thus there existed no "secular" realm in the way moderns understand the term (an acceptable area of life or action separated from the divine). Rather, everything could be categorized by its particular relationship to the gods." (p. 170, emphases in original)This shared sense of religion, of values, and of a certain kind of Athenian nationalism, even imperialism, was what bound the Athenians together into a cohesive society.
"Rather than stemming from demokratia or ideals of "liberty and equality," the unifying principles of Athens's citizenry derived from common beliefs about the gods, from a sense of national superiority, and from shared vales regarding the importance of performing their duties to gods, family, and polis … Common duties and a common religion thus undergirded every particular expression of Athenian culture or society, including demokratia. For this reason, democracy, like the Athenian empire and Attic tragedy, is more properly seen as a product of Athenian society, the Athenian character, and the actions of certain Athenians at particular historical moments, rather than as a fundamental or defining principle of that society." (p. 171, emphases in original)But why does this matter to us today? Prof. Samons argues that modern American discourse has come to value the ideas of "freedom", "choice", and "democracy" to such an extent that they have essentially become a religious ideology. While separation of church and state is widely recognized today as a core principle of American secularism, he claims that "democracy has become an almost unimpeachable doctrine … essentially filling a void left by the diminishing presence of previous social values" (p. 177). This, he argues, is connected with the modern belief that an individual's happiness is the ultimate goal and that this can be fulfilled by personal freedom (a belief held not just by libertarians today but more broadly by people across the political spectrum). He writes that
"despite the long-standing attempt in political philosophy to provide a firm foundation for the idea of "natural rights," I cannot see any way that rights can exist except as the reciprocal effects of socially endorsed duties based on moral principles …As Washington implied in his farewell address …, only duties based on moral principles of right and wrong can provide any secure environment for the protection of what moderns call an individual's "rights"." (p. 180)Arguing for the importance, even primacy, of shared social conceptions of virtue and the good life in the generation of a real society, he writes:
"By demonstrating the important role society and extrapolitical values play in limiting the potentially dangerous effects of democratic practices and ideas, Athenian history should encourage us to ask whether it is wise to enshrine modern democratic ideals like freedom, choice, and diversity as values or establish them as goals without any other social framework of moral obligation." (p. 181)I am not certain that I fully buy his argument about the problems with democracy, but I think the book is quite provocative and cogently argued, and deserves a close reading. In fact, I think a number of its arguments are particularly relevant to the case of Indian democracy, where many recent political developments have been associated with the efforts of various political parties to redistribute the spoils (wealth, jobs, educational seats, government positions, etc.) to different interest groups in order to establish their own distinct political power bases.
<UPDATE>
A few sections of the last chapter of What's Wrong with Democracy? are online, in the Winter/Spring 2005 issue archive of The Civic Arts Review, published at Ohio Wesleyan University. If you don't want to read 200 pages of fascinating Athenian history, then read these few pages, titled "Modern America and the Religion of Democracy".
</UPDATE>
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