Democratic Elections: Its History and Disadvantages

Democracy has been around since fifth century BC. Athens and many countries use it for their government, but is it really that great?

There are many factors that go into a democratic election. One thing that a democracy assumes is that all votes are equal. All opinions and votes are equal and they are all the same. However, there is a problem with this because the vote of someone who is educated is the same as the vote of an ignorant person and the vote of the law abiding citizen is the same as the criminals.

Another point against democracy is that it is a popularity contest. Politicians will say whatever the people want just to get voted into power. Politicians promise immediate satisfaction to the people rather than long term reform. Many politicians also use the people’s emotions to get their votes rather than using reason and academic knowledge.

From the beginning of time humans have used a tribal mentality to survive. In our society, we put ourselves into groups based on certain categories. The problem with this in democracy is that people will vote for whoever looks like them rather than voting for the best candidate. People vote for whoever they think is on their side and they don’t care about the facts or what the candidate is trying to do. This can be seen in elections where a person of colour is running and mostly all people of colour vote for that person without even knowing what they stand for. People should look past what the person's race is and instead focus on the facts but people don’t do that which is why democracy does not work.

When the government provides a service or job to someone, the person starts to feel entitled to it. If someone tries to stop providing these jobs and services, then they just made a large number of angry people. In 1984, Margaret Thatcher cut coal subsidies. This caused coal miners to feel that their jobs had been threatened and they became enemies of Thatcher. These people likely never voted for Thatcher again because she tried to cut their form of payment to which they felt entitled to. It is when the government provides us with payment that we begin to feel entitled and if the government stops, then we won’t vote for that party again.

Elected politicians only have power for a short term. Many of these politicians know that they will enjoy the temporary advantages of spending money, raising taxes etc. However, the politicians after their predecessors will have to deal with the negative consequences. Also, many politicians tend to avoid the problems they face during their terms because they only have short term power. Because of this, politicians behave. These politicians aren’t able to protect our borders, security, autonomy, economy or finances for a long term, as opposed to their rhetoric of course. They avoid and shove problems under the carpet, buy them off by spending more money or tackle them with more laws and prohibitions. The politicians never really fix the problems that the society may be having.