President Biden’s speech celebrating D-Day at Pont-du-Hoc in Normandy (France) reflects a simple and widespread conception of democracy. The general idea is this: Democracy is a system in which power is in the hands of the electorate. Voters are well informed and vote to express their interest in the election. Public Goods That’s what government tries to produce. Politicians and government officials are selfless civil servants who faithfully serve the demands of their constituents. The result, in Biden’s words, is freedom, the rule of law, and a government that serves “the people.” Democracy is good. We come together and make great sacrifices to accomplish great things.
In reality, public choice theory can be roughly summarized as follows: Most people vote blindly Because each person’s vote has no effect on the outcome of an election or referendum; many remain indifferent. Politicians and bureaucrats are self-interested ordinary people who occupy the public sector to pursue their own interests; when necessary, they will succumb to special interests. (Classical) liberals believe that democracy is a means to individual freedom, not an end, and that the scope and power of government must be strictly limited to a few essential functions to curb its ability to exploit some of the people.
Naive thinking confuses freedom and democracy, seeing collective choice as superior to individual choice. The collective is greater than the individual, and the latter must sacrifice for the former. Democracy is collectivism with a human face. Biden declared (“With D-Day backdrop, Biden puts democracy at center of anti-Trump appeal“, The Wall Street JournalJune 7, 2024; and C-SPAN Speech video):
American democracy demands the hardest thing: that we believe we are part of something bigger than ourselves. And so democracy begins with each of us… when one person decides there is something more important than themselves… when one person decides that their country is more important than themselves.
By the way, notice the change in rhetoric from “one person” to the politically correct “they” to avoid the word “he.” Interestingly, Biden later praises “the brave men who climbed these cliffs.” I believe the real function of replacing singular pronouns with plurals is to erase the individual.
Biden said that American soldiers who occupied Omaha Beach
It asks us to care more about other people at home than ourselves…to be part of something bigger than ourselves…to protect the freedoms and defend the democracy of our time…to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
At the very least, freedom is mentioned, but it seems to be merely a synonym for the central concept, democracy.
A free society is quite different. The government does not force others to make sacrifices like conscription in war, but gives individuals the freedom to make the sacrifices they wish to make. Capitalism and Freedom (1962) famously said:
In a much-quoted line from his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” … Neither part of this statement expresses a relationship between people and government that is appropriate to the ideal of free men in a free society. The paternalistic “what can your country do for you” implies that the government is the patron and the people are the guardians. … The organic “what can you do for your country” implies that the government is master or god and the people, servants or followers. To free men, the state is the collection of individuals who compose it, nothing beyond them.
James Buchanan conceptually believed that a stronger relationship between government and citizens would be created and limited by a unanimous social contract, but he (along with his collaborators Gordon Tullock and Jeffrey Brennan) stressed that the entire system was based on the absolute primacy of individual choice, and that citizens were not seen as sacrificial lambs. No social or collective purposefor personal purposes only. this Freedom is certainly worth protecting.
Biden’s concept of democracy is closer to Spartan democracy, dedicated to the collective power of citizens rather than individual freedom. At Pointe du Hoc he preached against the natural instinct to “be selfish, to impose our world on others, to take power and never give it up.” But isn’t imposing the world of some on others exactly what collectivism of any kind means?
******************************
Organic Democracy and the Old King, by DALL-E, with thanks to Thomas Hobbes and this humble blogger
