Democracy or dictatorship?

My intellectual curiosity about political science deepened after reading “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More. It laments the compromises that are necessary when ideology confronts the harsh realities of practicality.

To me, it is a eulogy of sorts, exploring the ideals that must be laid to rest when indulging in politics. While a utopian political system is impossible, the book inspired me to explore the multitude of social contracts that philosophers had advocated over the centuries. Inevitably, comparisons between Hobbes and Locke, with a background of Plato and Aristotle, consumed me.

Was Hobbes’s Leviathan right for Pakistan, a country that had already seen a string of military dictatorships? Or must a government derive legitimacy from the consent of the people, who otherwise have a right to overthrow it, as Locke advocated? While I don’t support dictatorship, I do come from a country where the majority of the population is rural and illiterate. Frustrated with the lack of development, they often succumb – at the expense of a checks and balances system – to the allure of swift justice, rapid development and lack of bureaucratic red tape that often forms the rhetoric of dictatorships.

The themes in Utopia were all too real for the son of a Senator who had seen a plethora of political systems. They stimulated my intellectual curiosity and forced me to critically analyse governments in Pakistan, which sway, much like a pendulum, between military dictatorship and democracy.

What is the measure of the success of a government? If we choose to use human development indicators as a yardstick, then how do we argue against a hypothetical dictatorship that brings development to a country?

What about the portion of the population that is opposed to certain aspects of human development, like women empowerment? What if they are the majority? Democracy, in that case, would result in an oppressive regime.

As such, I have been interested in intellectual criticisms of democracy, many of which stem from the precedent set by Plato’s The Republic. While the idea of benevolent philosopher-kings may be feasible in theory, there remains the threat of abuse of power. This ever-present threat ensures that I cannot, in theory or practice, support dictatorship.

SAIHAAM AHMED KHAN

Lahore