Representational Democracy

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

I know in my ample gut that Representational Democracy is worthless. I've had many discussions with comrades about the various inadequacies and how the representational system replicates capitalism, but I'd be interested in reading some of the standard Marxist texts on the subject. So, if anyone comes across any, please post here. Original content welcome too!

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

Came across this guy Amadeo Bordiga, he writes about the need to set up soviets in Italy in the 20s and argues against participation in bourgeois parliaments. Interesting rejection of democracy in principle, nevermind representational democracy, something I wouldn't be entirely comfortable with, but interesting all the same.

 

Here is a link to his collected works on marxists.org http://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/index.htm

 

In particular The Democratic Principle http://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1922/democratic-principle.htm

 

 

The division of society into classes distinguished by economic privilege clearly removes all value from majority decision-making. Our critique refutes the deceitful theory that the democratic and parliamentary state machine which arose from modern liberal constitutions is an organization of all citizens in the interests of all citizens. From the moment that opposing interests and class conflicts exist, there can be no unity of organization, and in spite of the outward appearance of popular sovereignty, the state remains the organ of the economically dominant class and the instrument of defence of its interests.

 

It is clear that the principle of democracy has no intrinsic virtue. It is not a "principle", but rather a simple mechanism of organization, responding to the simple and crude arithmetical presumption that the majority is right and the minority is wrong. Now we shall see if and to what extent this mechanism is useful and sufficient for the functioning of organizations comprising more restricted collectivities which are not divided by economic antagonisms. To do this, these organizations must be considered in their process of historical development.

 

He then goes on to view how it would be under communism

 

One thing is sure - while bourgeois democracy's real goal is to deprive the large proletarian and petty-bourgeois masses of all influence in the control of the state, reserved for the big industrial, banking and agricultural oligarchies, the proletarian dictatorship must be able to involve the broadest layers of the proletarian and even semi-proletarian masses in the struggle that it embodies. But only those who are the victims of democratic prejudice could imagine that attaining this end merely requires the setting up of a vast mechanism of electoral consultation. This may be excessive or - more often - insufficient, because this form of participation by many proletarians may

result in their not taking part in other more active manifestations of the class struggle.

 

The units in which the electors are grouped at the base can therefore be formed according to empirical criteria. In fact they will constitute themselves according to empirical criteria, among which, for instance, the convergence in the workplace, the neighbourhood, the garrison, the battlefront or any other situation in daily life, without any of them being excluded a priori or held up as a model. This does not prevent the representative organs of the proletarian state from being based on a territorial division into electoral districts. None of these considerations is absolute, and this takes us back to our thesis that no constitutional schema has the value of a principle, and that majority democracy in the formal and arithmetic sense is only one possible method for coordinating the relations that arise within collective organizations. No matter what point of view one takes, it is impossible to attribute to it an intrinsic character of necessity or justice. For Marxists these terms have no meaning. Therefore we do not propose to substitute for the democratic schema which we have been criticizing any other schema of a state apparatus which in itself will be exempt from defects and errors

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

Bordiga is criticised for his absolute rejection of bourgeois parliaments in Lenin's Left Communism, An Infantile Disorder here http://www.marxists....lwc/ch07.htm#b5 and here http://www.marxists....appendix.htm#a3

 

But I'm more interested in examining the mechanisms of representational democracy than examining whether we should engage in parliaments, something that Lenin doesn't really explore in this work. I'm sure he couldn't have imagined the complexity of the modern representational system either.

[Fodla32 3,692]

I'd say this will help you - I can't find a free version of Habermas' original essay online:

 

 

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/5452/Ratio-Juris-Vol12-No4.pdf

[Fodla32 3,692]

Ah, found it: Jurgen Habermas - Three Normative Models of Democracy. Habermas would be considered the unofficial political philosopher of the EU, so his work would make a good contrast with the Green Book.

 

http://ebookbrowse.com/gdoc.php?id=43710115&url=efa969afa0ea54a92958b4d97519af9f