Virtual Democracy

June 17, 2001

"Government of, by and for the people" - nice concept; does it actually exist?

What should have been the latest US presidential election resulted in a court-appointed coup instead. Even worse, the media took little interest in the unreliable voting machines, improper counting of absentee ballots, inaccurate databases, and unlawful purging of voter records which targeted African Americans and effectively swung the election. Not important enough to report on, apparently. The nation was lulled into accepting the authority of one who promises "reconciliation" and "humility" while he thumbs his nose at internationally established peace and environmental agreements, preferring to line the pockets of wealthy industrialist supporters instead.

TINA - Margaret Thatcher's ominous reference to subverting the expectations of the majority into believing There Is No Alternative - applies to the recent elections in England too. Hailed by the press as a meaningful landslide for Blair, the result takes on a far less triumphant tone when one considers that a full 41% of the population didn't even show up to cast a ballot. Many voters complained that Blair's "left-of-center" Labour party is actually more to the right than the Conservatives, noting that Blair has spent less on health and education than Thatcher, and fights for multinational corporate control in supporting the General Agreement on Trade and Services (Gats). With Blair's "true radicalism" approach, the gap between rich and poor has grown even faster than under Major, so given no viable alternative, many English voters just gave up.

"Government of, by and for the people" doesn't only mean fair elections offering voters real choice, but also governing bodies that care about citizens' views. Interesting then that the World Bank's next global meeting (Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics) set for Barcelona in late June been cancelled and shifted to the internet instead. Expecting to encounter the same level of protest seen in Seattle, Prague and Quebec, World Bank representatives explained, " It is time to take a stand against this kind of threat to free expression," adding "We decided you can't have a meeting of ideas behind a cordon of police officers." The fact that standing behind that cordon in a fog of pepper spray would be the general public wanting to be heard is apparently inconsequential. "Free expression" counts more if you are a World Bank official than an ordinary citizen.

Perhaps even more telling is the World Trade Organization's similar attempt to escape protestors by holding its November ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar. Not exactly a democratic country, Qatar can be expected to withhold visas from undesirables hoping to protest, and then quickly knock down any signs of dissent in the streets. Thus shielded from public attention or debate, the WTO ministers will be able to go about their elitist agenda in peace.

So is this the face of modern democracy? Voters reduced to cynical apathy because of stolen elections or meaningless choices? Large centralized governing bodies hiding from the very people they should represent? Corporate-controlled media that provides PR for elitist systems and very little else? Not a pretty picture.

There Are Alternatives to the emerging system of state corporate mercantilism, and citizens must have the right to be represented rather than simply managed. It will take getting past apathy, cynicism and propaganda to discover what true democracy can look like in the 21st century.

Heather Wokusch is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at womanrant@hotmail.com