Democratic diagnosis manifesto

Manifesto for a democratic diagnosis

People, citizens from any horizons, let’s transcend our differences in order to demand a diagnosis of our democratic systems!

Democracy is sick, where it seems to exist. Even where it looks healthy, it remains crucial to be reassured about it regularly.

Democracy’s promise is the following: we citizens, together despite our differences, decide of the institutions through which we govern ourselves. This decision is one of a sovereign people, sovereign over its future and over the project of society it carries.

To achieve that, we must accept hard truths. To start with, humanity is nothing but a frail sailboat on an ocean of uncertainty. Wherever we head towards, storms await us. No matter who holds the rudder, be it the best sailor, the ship will sink without the rowers and those that scoop out the water that seeps into the hold. The real democratic question is not who holds the rudder, but how the whole crew organizes, coordinates, divide up the work according to the strengths of each person. Nobody is more important that anyone: the crew forms a whole, and it is only as such that it can move forward.

Our societies are far more complex than a ship, and our crew more numerous and intertwined. It is inevitable that we will disagree, and that constantly. On the division of labour among us of course, but as well on the horizon where to steer the ship. Where do we go now? Eternal question without good self-evident answer. We sail towards uncertainty, without being able to anticipate everything that we will face. But we can choose, together, a course that we consider better than others.  And we can take advantage of the lulls to sew our sails, repair the hull, care for the injured, and reassure each other.

Yes, we will disagree on where to steer the ship. But today, we also disagree on how to steer the ship. How to be a crew made of so many different people? How to handle our inevitable disagreements while remaining united and solidary? The only answer to this existential question is called democracy.

Our only hope is democracy. We must, now, each and every one, tend towards it. And do it with the awareness that democracy will never be perfect, and so shall never be frozen. Democracy is a process, a permanent collective learning, an ideal in eternal (re)construction.

Today, we must acknowledge that what we have done from democracy so far doesn’t suffice anymore to tackle the challenges of our time. We have largely delegated democracy, to captains and their staff that we elect regularly. They have steered the ship, sometimes towards legitimate horizons, but as well through devastating storms. Some have tried to make us a solidary crew, many have divided us. Whatever the steering direction, we have largely nodded. But mostly, we have forgotten our right and our capacity to take part on the decision over which winds to take.

We all are on the same boat, and we must today gather on the deck to decide how we will steer it.

We must at the outset burry the illusion that we could find a providential captain, be it a simple deckhand or a mutineer lieutenant. Nobody can govern us appropriately if we don’t govern ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we won’t assign specific roles and tasks. And yes, some of us might get behind the rudder, why not few captains in rotation. But they won’t be able to impose their steering choices to the whole crew. Some counter-powers are always necessary.

Democracy is a precarious and complex equilibrium, in which the people must have its full weight: without it the whole tilts into tyranny. Today, the people must weigh on the democratic equilibrium. Citizen must contribute more, more often, at several scales, through multiple mechanisms. For example, citizens could: take part on decisions over how to use financial resources through participatory budgeting ; recall elected officials under some circumstances ; settle fundamental political questions through (p)referendums ; propose new laws through popular initiatives ; and finally build together solutions through public deliberation, in order to face and overcome disagreements through peaceful dialogue.

Each and every one won’t always participate to each democratic venue and moment. Some don’t want to, or prefer one or another possibility to express themselves. And we are far too numerous not to divide the democratic labour. What matters is that each one of us benefits from multiple opportunities to participate to the democratic game. Of course, we will also need some people with particular skills: leaders; elected officials; judges; experts etc. The democratic system, in a complex society, necessarily implies a complex division of labour.

But there is no magical recipe, no universal formula that works always and everywhere. Democracy will always be imperfect and a priori perfectible. No solution can fix for good every problem, and new problems will emerge, demanding our collective effort to reinvent democracy again and again. We must acknowledge this reality, and start together a permanent process of interrogation of the state of our democracy. We must identify the problems faced by each democratic system, and imagine together appropriate solutions.

Today, we must all together initiate a process of democratic diagnosis, in order to detect the pathologies affecting our democracies. Each democratic system must commit to its self-critique.

This diagnostic process must be done democratically, including at best citizens through several democratic mechanisms and innovations. A democratic diagnosis could combine elected representatives and randomly selected citizens; supported by experts (of democracy notably); be fuelled by large popular consultations, online for instance; and see its main propositions be settled through popular referendums. This process of democratic diagnosis could take many other democratic forms, possibilities are numerous.

The crucial message is that this process of democratic diagnosis is possible, necessary, everywhere and every time.

Of course, we won’t agree from the outset on what are the problems of our democratic systems, let alone on the solutions to tackle those. But we can’t imagine appropriate solutions if we do not identify the correct problems, and agree on these. To attempt to overcome our disagreements on the matter, through a democratic dialogue, is today our best option.

Citizens, we must today discuss the rules of the democratic game, together despite our differences, in order for these to coexist peacefully. We must reclaim the democratic process, rebuild our trust in it, and for that we need to diagnose it democratically.