'democracy' of the mob, The

EVERY 20TH CENTURY DESPOT or dictator has found it necessary to claim to represent "the will of the people," even as he trampled on their lives, dignities and liberties. And all too frequently the majority victimized by the tyrant has taken the easy way out, blaming some targeted and defenseless minority for their woes-rather than confronting the tyrant's corruption and abuse of power. This was the road taken in the Turkish genocide of Armenians and the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

The authorities not only fail to protect the victims: they justify the mob violence by appeal to majority rule, "the will of the people" and the national "right to selfdetermination."

The true understanding of popular sovereignty ("the will of the people") is based on the awareness that sound public opinion requires the full, free, and uninhibited discussion of public events and political policy. Without that forum for hammering out civic decision, no decision is truly "democratic." That is why the apparent unanimity of opinion in support of tyrants is meaningless: the mob is fickle and its opinions brittle, especially when forced to honor the facade of popular support that the despot or dictator yearns for.

The only viable government in the long run is that which gives equal attention to "the will of the people" and their basic human rights-including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, freedom of assembly and petition. A "democratic" regime that breaks from that tandem may bring misery to two or three generations-all in the name of some god-man, some idol. *

Franklin H. Littell, Professor Emeritus, Temple University, is Robert Foster Cherry Distinguished Visiting Professor at Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

Copyright The Human Quest Mar/Apr 1998
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