Why I no longer believe in parliamentary democracy

I grew up in a World where there appeared to be only two choices of government, the freedom and safety of Western Democracy or the fear and tyranny of the Communist Bloc. I was taught the importance of our freedoms and warned never to take them for granted.

Now, given the choice I'd plump for Western Democracy every time and I'm very grateful that we won the Cold War. However, I don't think that should blind us the failings of our own system, and these have become very clear in recent years.

The problem with Parliamentary Democracy in this country is that it is elitist, adversarial and bureaucratic. The fact is that it is not really a democracy (rule by the people); instead it is a self-perpetuating oligarchy (rule by an elite).


What we have is government from the top down, rather than from the bottom up, as it should be in a true democracy. The government is supposed to us, the people, in theory we are the government; but many people think of the government as "them", a remote, faceless and uncaring institution, in which they have little say.


I finally lost any remaining faith in our democracy when the British Government joined the Bushite crusade in Iraq; a war that millions of people in this country were against; a war in which thousands have died and a war which has left us less safe than before. In addition to this both the previous Conservative government and the current Labour government have forced through law after law curtailing our basic freedoms. If you don't believe this, I thoroughly recommend that you watch the film "Taking Liberties".

I now believe that the whole concept of the state is flawed; as Jacques Ellul wrote:

"What seems to be one of the disasters of our time is that we all appear to agree that the nation-state is the norm. […] Whether the state be Marxist or capitalist, it makes no difference. The dominant ideology is that of sovereignty." (Anarchy and Christianity, 104–5.)

Some people would label me either a fascist or a communist (depending upon their own political leanings). The truth is that whichever way you go, the extremes of left and right are practically indistinguishable - the iron fist of repression and the rule of the state.

Recently I have begun to realise that the whole left-right thing is a fantasy. Neither the free-market nor the nanny-state can truly give us the society we need. I now realise that we have to step aside from these debates and choose another way.

This other way begins with the rejection of this artificial construct: the state. Leo Tolstoy wrote of the state:

"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments,
the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom
war is always pernicious even when successful."

This ideology (the idea that no state or government is necessary) is called Anarchism - forget anything about punk rock and the Sex Pistols. Many people assume that this is an ideology of the left, but in truth Socialism (the corporate state controlling everything) is the antithesis of Anarchism. Furthermore, Anarchism does not necessarily involve violence and revolution, in fact pacifism and non-violence are more often found within modern anarchist thought.

I have been particularly taken with the ideas of Christian Anarchism, which I have been examining recently. Hang on, I hear you say, what is a Christian, especially a Catholic doing talking about anarchism? Well I'm not alone, many Catholics have embraced aspects of anarchist thought and some anarchists have adopted ideas from Christianity, especially the early Church (see Acts 2:44).

Well, I will have to stop for now as I have to go and play badminton, but this is something I will return to.