Systemic weaknesses, human nature and the culture of gaming democracy
Democracy traces its birth back to the city-states of ancient Greece. They defined democracy (de mokratía) as “rule of the people.”
Canada, like other democratic countries today, has a system of “representative democracy,” whereby elected officials make decisions on behalf of the public. The public assumes, or should have the right to assume, that their elected government is duly acting in the public interest. This is the operative expectation of democracy. But is it true?
Is democracy real, or merely an elaborate illusion … a reality-show designed to keep the barricades down and everyone playing along?
Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has stated that democracy in America has been “hacked” — borrowing terminology from computer science to describe the introduction of malevolent software by a third-party to seize control of a system — saying that, “The American political system is an utter catastrophe.”
Gore was referring to the influence of special-interest money in Washington — which Lavalin- Gate clearly demonstrated is also rampant in Ottawa — however democracy in Canada also suffers from additional systemic weaknesses that have fertilized a culture of political-gaming. This culture favours a rigged game, and politicians have become very sophisticated in their manipulation of a political system designed long ago, in a time when truth was still the expected status quo in public dialogue.
Democracy is being gamed. But how exactly?
To begin with, the underpinning concept of representational democracy is critically flawed. It is true that we get to vote for the candidate of our choice, however we can only vote for candidates on the ballot. Those candidates have been chosen by just a few party elites, known as “green-light committees.”
Another systemic weakness is our plurality electoral system, whereby the candidate in any riding who wins the most votes, as opposed to a majority of votes, wins the seat. This can result in an election outcome where one party wins the popular vote, while an opposing party wins more seats — and forms the government (as in 2019). The loser (Trudeau) sometimes wins.
Electoral ridings have also been weaponized. Redistribution to advance desired electoral outcomes is known as “gerrymandering.”
Social media is now used by most major political parties, employing psychographics to create microtargeted advertising to manipulate voter behaviour.
On the campaign trail politicians shamelessly lie, without fear of legal consequence. Courts have uniformly held that the imposition of judicial penalties would interfere with parliamentary sovereignty. It’s breech of trust, not contract.
Once in power, the practice continues.
Politicians routinely fall back on a sophisticated suite of proven tactical methodologies to stay on message and avoid direct answers … whatever the question. Opposition members, parliamentary committee members and journalists all struggle daily to get a straight answer from the government. The lack of factual information hampers journalism in its critical role within a democracy to inform the public.
In fact, we have become inured to political babblespeak and no longer expect truth from our leaders.
Even when caught in scandal, the Conflict of Interest Act lacks any meaningful penalty provisions — Trudeau is currently on his third investigation.
With a majority government, a PM is largely free to implement a personal agenda that may not serve the interests of the majority of Canadians.
The aggregate effect of all this gaming is that our system of democracy is no longer functional. The lack of accountability and the absence of truth threatens our future.
“Politician” is a job, and most people want to keep their jobs. Political parties want to form a government, and governments want to stay in power. Power is the overriding dynamic in politics. Politics is power. Over time, this reality has nurtured the development of a permanent political class, whose underpinning maxim is power. Power is achieved and maintained by gaming the system.
The system is broken, but not beyond repair. It’s fixable, but only with political will. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist. The requisite changes run contrary to the interests of the permanent political class. Imagine supporting a change in your company that may result in your receiving a poor performance review or losing your job.
Truth is, the majority of politicians are happy with the system. After all, they created it in their own image. To quote Mark Twain, “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”