Democracy on the scales of criticism of Western scientists
In the upcoming article, as in the previous topic, some theories of Western scientists regarding criticism of democracy will be discussed, which is as follows:
Oswald Spengler, who died in 1936, is a great German philosopher and his pen masterpiece is called “The Decline of the West”. Spengler correctly recognized the real position of the people in the structure of democracy and considers the main actors in this field to be party leaders and owners of propaganda tools.
“The truth is that by extending the right to vote to the general public, elections have lost their original meaning; [Because the people] will be caught in the clutches of the new powers, that is, the leaders of the parties, and these leaders will impose their will on the people by using all propaganda and indoctrination devices.
René Guenon, who died in 1951, is one of the most famous contemporary French philosophers. Like others, he has understood the duality in the structure of government of the people over the people and considers it impossible.
“If we accept that fixed and single people can be both rulers and condemned at the same time, we have encountered a contradiction.”
Hannah Arendt, who died in 1975, is one of the most famous contemporary German historians and philosophers. He, who is Jewish, taught political science in America for many years.
“What we call democracy today is a form of government in which the few rule – at least hypothetically – for the benefit of the many. However, this government can be called oligarchic; In the sense that the general happiness and the freedom of all have again become the special and exclusive right of this small number.
Michel Foucault, who died in 1983, is a contemporary French historian and thinker whose studies on history, politics and society became world famous and is one of the most influential scientific figures of recent times.
“Individuals in liberal societies are slavishly subject to the subtle forms of order that the dominant concept imposes on the norm.”
“Many of the liberating activities and ideas of modern society (liberal democracy) are actually the institutionalization of more insidious forms of disciplinary control in a prison archipelago.”
John Rawls, who died in 2002, is called the Philosopher of Justice because of his very famous book. He is one of the most important political philosophers of the 20th century and even according to some thinkers, he is the most prominent figure of political philosophy of this century. The works of this controversial and influential philosopher have been in print for over fifty years and have increasingly influenced political philosophy around the world.
“There is no argument that what the majority wills is right.”
Alain Dubenoit, born in 1943, is a well-known French thinker, writer and journalist who is known as one of the leaders of the movement called New Right. Like Rousseau, he believes that the competence of democracy is unprovable.
“All the thinkers who have said that democracy is the best regime, have refused to prove the concept of democracy in itself and have usually resorted to comparison and said that democracy has disadvantages, but its disadvantages are less than other regimes.”
“Elections and parliamentarianism make the middle-class unintelligent people come to power. Because the number of people who participate in political activity is large, the political game is reduced to the struggle of individuals to secure personal interests, and this itself causes an increase in demagoguery, which results in forgetting public interests.
Harvard University professor Michael Sandel said: “In the government of democracy, people lose the possibility of governing themselves and their destiny.”
Michael Sandel, born in 1953, is a contemporary American political philosopher and professor at Harvard University, who was honored by the American Political Science Association in 2008 for his teaching genius. Sandel believes that emptying public life of moral and religious discourse has disastrous consequences, leading to a vacuum filled with narrow-minded and bigoted natural moralisms. Considering the existing conditions and the weaknesses of the public life of liberal societies, Sandel declares that only a return to ethics can fill the void of modern politics.
“In the government of democracy, people lose the possibility of governing themselves and their destiny.”
Andrew Levin, born in 1968, is one of the professors of the University of Maryland, USA, who specializes in the field of political thought and philosophy of social sciences. He considers democracy to be nothing more than words, which ultimately leads to the tyranny of the majority, and this tyranny is no less than a royal dictatorship.
“If we scrutinize the key institutions of liberal democracy systems and the institutional support associated with it, i.e. the party system, the result is that people’s sovereignty is actually in practice but not intended.”
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