Today more than half of all countries are Liberal Democracies and the ruling classes of the world have declared the Liberal Democratic model to be the best and the most democratic option available to us. But this system has again and again failed to represent the interests of the working masses of the world, instead, it has only worked to maximise profits for the Imperialist Bourgeoisie and their Compradors counterparts.
Communists, Socialists and even Liberals, at times, have pointed out the glaring flaws of this model. The primary flaw of course being the fact that democracy can never coexist with capitalism or even Private Property. But many have addressed that question before me; I will not repeat their arguments. Instead, I would like to discuss a more seldom flaw of Liberal Democracies— the problem of participation.
Liberal Democracies function on the assumption that the masses will consistently participate in the polity of the country with all their energies. But our experience with Liberal Democracies has shown that this is nothing but a far-fetched fantasy with no basis in reality. The dream of active participation of the masses in a Liberal Democracy is reduced to an unrealised dream because of two reasons— Capitalism and Lack of Institutions. Under capitalism, the working masses, through their relentless labour, subsidise the luxurious lives of the bourgeoisie. As Karl Marx rightly said, “Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.”.
The working masses do not have the luxury to actively and consistently indulge in politics or anything other than their job, for that matter. Thus the liberal dream of mass participation remains just that, a dream.
The second primary reason concerns institutions.
The institutions of the state play a very key role in a Liberal Democracy since it functions on a system of checks and balances. But no variant of the democracies has any institution to ensure the proper participation of the populace. No such institutions are in place in these democracies, firstly because it is not feasible for the working masses to participate in everyday politics and secondly, it is better for the Capitalists if the masses would not take an interest in politics. Their lack of participation paves the way for greater degrees of domination by Capitalists since their political ploys don’t just go unopposed but their Imperialist aggression is even celebrated by the masses because of their control over media narratives. Thus every Liberal Democracy in the world actively, yet latently, discourages the participation of the masses into politics. Such is the beauty of capitalism. What Slave based and Feudal societies tried to achieve through coercion, capitalism achieves through manipulation.
But it is not that there doesn’t exist a solution to these problems, it is just that the problem of participation cannot be solved within the structures of Liberal Democracy. The solution is Socialist Democracy and its concept of the Vanguard Party, to prove my point I will use two particular examples— Cultural Revolution and Cuban Democracy.
The Cultural Revolution was a political movement in China during the 1970s. It was led by mostly the Communist Party cadres who were unhappy with the top leadership of the Party and the policies they were moving towards(the cadres were particularly unhappy with the Zhou Enlai line and Deng Xiaoping line). Mao Tse Tung had supported the movement as he too was unhappy with the lines being taken up by the Party leadership. The movement consisted of multiple hearings of various leaders of different scales all throughout the country. The hearings were conducted by the cadres where the cadres and the people would accuse the said leaders in a “People’s Court”, the accused too would be allowed to present their side and if found to be guilty by the People’s Court then the accused would be forced to resign. Various accounts from books like “Fanshen”(William Hinton), “The Unknown Cultural Revolution”(Dongping Han) and “From Victory to Defeat”(Pao-Yu Ching) confirm such incidents. National Level leaders of the Party and Ministers of the Chinese State were being put on trial by mere cadres and common people for their policies.
Let us come to the example of Cuba;
Cuba’s constitution, firstly was drafted through hundreds of mass meetings and it was accepted after a referendum(with a 98% turn out) was held where 97% Cubans voted in favour of it. Cuba has a parliamentary system where no political party or Communist Party members can contest elections. The candidates are nominated by the people of the constituencies through a meeting three months before the election. Independent candidates contest elections as individuals and their campaigning is done by the State, usually by putting up their campaign posters on Newsboards. This gives all candidates an equal platform in terms of campaigning. All Cuban elections since 1976 have had turnouts of over 95%. The elected candidates are sent to the National Assembly of People’s Power which further elects the leadership. The National Assembly then elects the Council of the State, the governing body of Cuba.
The Cubans also participate in a form of direct democracy through the Communist Party and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution(CDR). The Cuban citizens participate in meetings organised by the CDR and the Communist Party to discuss issues ranging from Public Health to Infrastructure to Education. Even complicated issues regarding Defense and Foreign Affairs are discussed where if needed then the policies of the State are explained to the people too. After each meeting, these organisations create reports about the people’s demands and feedback regarding policies and submit these reports to the National Assembly. Cuba also holds Municipal Elections in a similar manner and all elections are held at regular intervals(every 5 years for the National Assembly and every 2.5 years for the Municipal Councils).
As we saw in both cases there was vigorous participation by the ordinary masses into politics and administration, even into complicated topics such as Foreign Affairs and Economic Policies. But how was this possible? Because Socialist Democracies solve the two primary problems regarding mass participation. In Cuba and China the working masses, from peasants to workers, did not have to perform 10-12 or even more hours of hard labour for a meager wage sufficient only for their survival. Under Socialism the work conditions are much better(since the primary aim is not profit maximisation) and thus the people had the time and energy to invest into the political procedure of the country. This is also why, in Cuba, people from all spheres of society make it to the National Assembly— from farmers to workers to students to writers. Politics is seen as a mandatory leisurely activity in Cuba, Members of the National Assembly continue their usual job alongside their politics.
Secondly in both the cases the Communist Party and its mass organisations play a massive role bringing out political participation from the people. This includes holding mass meetings for the drafting of the Constitution, holding regular meetings to address diverse issues of recent concern through the CDR in the case of Cuba and holding hearings of the People’s Court during the Cultural Revolution. The Communist Party bridges the gap between the people and the State by directly taking policies to the masses and getting feedback from them, this is the closest that a modern democracy can come to becoming a direct democracy. This is why the voter turnout in every Cuban election is more than 95%. Today we cannot imagine a National level leader of a Liberal Democracy being questioned directly by the people but the Chinese Communists made it possible in the 70s. Socialist Democracies have an active institution to ensure the participation of the masses— The Vanguard Party.
Capitalism and Democracy are mutually exclusive, but Liberals, who would rather destroy the human race rather than destroy Capitalism, have claimed copyright over Democracy. We as dedicated socialists, have to go amongst the people, learn their grievances from them and create a Revolutionary Democratic System around it, as the Cubans and the Chinese did.