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First chapter «Parliaments»

The institution of parliament in the world today is backbone of modern traditional democracy. Yet such an institution is a misrepresentation of the people, and parliamentary systems are a contrived solution to the problem of democracy. Parliaments are instruments of government are essentially established in the name of the people. Yet this underlying principle is in itself undemocratic, since democracy as a system of government means the power of the people, and not power vested in elected members of an assembly, in the name of the people. As such, the mere existence of parliaments underlies the absence of the people, for democracy can only exist with the presence of the people and not in the presence of representatives of the people. Parliaments have become a legal barrier between people and their right to exercise authority. They exclude the masses in order to prevent them from practising politics, they monopolize the control of politics in their name. The people are left with nothing but a semblance of democracy, manifested in the long queues of voters waiting their turn to cast their votes in the ballot box. To unravel the real nature of parliaments, we must know how they are formed. They are either elected from constituencies, a political party or a coalition of parties, or are appointed. All such methods are undemocratic. The division of the population into constituencies means that a member of parliament represents thousands, hundred of thousands, even millions of citizens, depending on the population count. It also means that a member of parliament thus elected keeps few people’s organizational links with the electorate, and is considered, along with the other members, a representative of the people as a whole. This method is a requirement of existing traditional democracies. At this point in the process, the masses and the elected member of parliament, are totally set apart, and the elected member, upon obtaining the majority vote, becomes a monopolizer of the people’s sovereignty by virtue of the authority vested in him to manage their affairs. Traditional democracy, prevalent in our world today, confers upon members of parliament a sanctity and an immunity it denies ordinary citizens. Parliaments have thus become a means of confiscating and monopolizing the power of the people. Such a state of affairs gives the right to struggle, by waging a revolution to destroy these instruments - the so-called representative assemblies which monopolize democracy and sovereignty, and usurp the will of the masses. The masses will rise and proclaim the new principle in a thundering cry: “No, to representation of the people.” If a parliament is formed from members who are followers of one particular political party as a result of their electoral victory, then this parliament is not representative of the people, but of this particular party; the executive body it will be the executive power of this party, and not of the people. Similarly, a parliament of proportional representation whose seats are distributed to the different parties according to their percentage success in the vote is not representative of the people: its members do not represent the people but their parties; and the ruling power established by this coalition of the parties is the power of the coalition and not of the people. Under such systems, the people are the prey fought over by the predators: instruments of government complete in their power struggle for the votes of the people they in turn neglect and exploit, while the people move silently towards the ballot box, like the beads in a rosary, to cast their votes in the same way that they throw rubbish in dustbins. This is traditional democracy that is prevalent in the world today, regardless of the system of government in place and regardless of whether it is a one-party, bipartisan or a multi-party system, or indeed a regime which precludes political parties. Traditional democracy therefore represents forms of government in which the principle of representation is a fraud. Assemblies whose seats are allotted to heirs and other privileged appointees cannot be similarly categorized: they lack even a semblance of democracy. Moreover, the electoral system in the so-called democratic forms of government is a demagogic practice in the literal sense of the word. It is based on propaganda campaigns aimed at winning over the constituents, and involves buying and manipulating votes. This produces closed election campaigns which the poor cannot afford to participate in and thus the rich are always elected. The principle of elected representation was advocated by philosophers, intellectuals and writers in times past, when people were unwittingly herded like sheep by sultans, emperors and conquerors. At that time, what the people truly aspired to was to have someone to represent them to the rulers. Eve when this aspiration was rejected, throughout history people have waged a bitter and protracted struggle to attain this goal. After the triumph of republicanism and the beginning of the era of the masses, it is unthinkable that the concept of democracy should be translated into an electoral process whereby a few elected deputies are mandated to represent the masses. This is an outdated theory, and an obsolete experiment. Power should be entirely for all the people. It should always be born in mind that the most tyrannical of dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.

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