January 2017
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
(Winston S. Churchill)
Without any
doubt, democracy is one of the most important elements of our modern
civilization. At first glance, a referendum seems to be the quintessential flagship of democratic principles
which consequently must be regarded as positive. In fact, outcomes like the
Brexit prove that some political issues are too complex to be decided by direct
votes of civilians.
It seems that
large parts of the population are simply too lazy to acquire a profound knowledge
about political issues and some are not even able to comprehend political
interdependencies which is essential to come to a thoughtful decision. Many
people fail to anticipate the mass of side effects that is accompanied by their
vote. A perfect example is the statistic showing that many inhabitants of Great
Britain started googling the consequences of the Brexit after voting to leave. The
inertia of masses does not only lead to a lack of well-informed voters, but
also to an alarming low election turnout.
Furthermore, it is obvious that there is a high impact
of media that influences the result of a referendum. People tend to be driven
by strong emotions like hate or fear and a single campaign is able to change a
public opinion rapidly. Another negative aspect is the division of the society
into two fractions (pro and contra) and the resulting conflicts give rise to
radicalization.
In my opinion, questions that
exceed the impact of a new coloration of the Queen’s bedroom in Buckingham
Palace should never be reduced to a simple “yes” or “no”.
Just like
Churchill indicates in above statement, I
believe that the romantic idea of a perfect democracy is an illusion due to
the defectiveness of the average voter.
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