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Universal suffrage fails!
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
At the very heart of my political education was the belief in universal adult suffrage. My mother had experienced the struggle and victory of the women's suffrage movement.I have watched as the voting age (like the age of consent) has increasingly recognised the rights of our growing young. One Person, One Vote was our slogan, based on a belief that political power should arise from "the will of the people".
Our Chinese neighbours believed that the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, held a mandate from heaven to rule. We have believed that our rulers receive their mandate from a national 'voice' expressed through elections.
That is the theory, more or less, and that has been our practice and the system we have gone to war to install elsewhere.
The events of the past few weeks really do suggest that this basic tenet of our democracy is actually a load of b*ll*cks, and dangerous.
Here, in the UK, government pressure has prevented a referendum because there is a real risk that we-the-people would vote against them. And now, in Greece, Premier Papandreou has thrown down the gauntlet to the whole notion.
It is no coincidence, I believe, that this challenge to the very idea of democratic accountability arises out of the much greater challenge to our economic and fiscal structures and institutions.
Around the world, the Occupy movement reminds me of the (i)Serment du Jeu de Paume(/i) that launched the French Revolution. In the gathering, debates, seminars and discussions outside Saint Paul's Cathedral (a true symbol of Enlightenment values) fundamental questions are being asked and, belatedly, the Christian authorities are joining the public discourse. Those of us who hold to and practice the Buddhist way need also to be in there. I hope to be in Paternoster Square later today or tomorrow to hear what is being said.
Our Chinese neighbours believed that the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, held a mandate from heaven to rule. We have believed that our rulers receive their mandate from a national 'voice' expressed through elections.
That is the theory, more or less, and that has been our practice and the system we have gone to war to install elsewhere.
The events of the past few weeks really do suggest that this basic tenet of our democracy is actually a load of b*ll*cks, and dangerous.
Here, in the UK, government pressure has prevented a referendum because there is a real risk that we-the-people would vote against them. And now, in Greece, Premier Papandreou has thrown down the gauntlet to the whole notion.
It is no coincidence, I believe, that this challenge to the very idea of democratic accountability arises out of the much greater challenge to our economic and fiscal structures and institutions.
Around the world, the Occupy movement reminds me of the (i)Serment du Jeu de Paume(/i) that launched the French Revolution. In the gathering, debates, seminars and discussions outside Saint Paul's Cathedral (a true symbol of Enlightenment values) fundamental questions are being asked and, belatedly, the Christian authorities are joining the public discourse. Those of us who hold to and practice the Buddhist way need also to be in there. I hope to be in Paternoster Square later today or tomorrow to hear what is being said.
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