Democracy or Oligarchy?

Greetings,

Is Australia a democracy or an oligarchy? It is a question which must be asked when we look at how our country is run. There seems to be a lot of top-down thought being used, with the people at the bottom often being forgotten in favour of the people at the top.

A democracy is a system in which each person has a say in how the country/nation/state is being run. This is regardless of gender and with the only restrictions in our system being that you need to be an Australian citizen, and of legal age. This allows you to vote once every four years on average. The system also has no barring to political office based on class or financial status, or so it says, or so it is supposed to be.

An oligarchy is a system in which only the top echelons of society have a say in how the country/nation/state is being run. There is a system to ensure that only the upper echelons of society have any say in what is happening in the system and most other people sit below and have to put up with the decisions made by the top echelons.

With these pseudo-definitions in place I can point out a couple of things with regard to the system in Australia. Examine firstly how often we actually get a say as voters, this is really only every four years or so when we make our selection of the individuals who happen to be running for office at that time. This is the same at local, state and federal levels. These people who we pick and chose from are the people who actually run the system. Sure we can send messages in different forms to our local members to have our problems looked at. But what are the results? Who's opinions really get heard? Sure if we don't like it we can run for office, but then there are the chances of actually getting in.

This is where the system begins to feel a little oligarchic in nature. First part of this is the question of who really gets heard. Businesses get heard. So-called interest groups get heard. And if enough "normal" people get together (usually requiring thousands) they get heard. The first two groups mentioned get heard because they have an effect on the economy, they have power, they are part of the upper echelons. So the upper echelons get heard more than the "normal" people.

For a person to run for office they need to make themselves known. Indeed they need to make themselves known before they start to run for office, before the next election is due. Examine our politicians, see how many of them are known leaders of the community, be that community leaders, people in business, or people who help the less fortunate, or in some instances sporting stars. These people are known in their community because they do things. Often these things take money and bring a lot of media attention. How does the average Joe compete with that level of publicity? Media campaigns take money. Getting to be known takes money. The wider that you want to be known the more money this will take. Quite frankly in the end the one who makes the bigger noise is more likely to be heard, and elected. Without some sort of financial backing you are quite frankly bought out of the race. Sound familiar? Restriction of access to politics to the upper levels? As I have said oligarchic in nature.

Interestingly even the cradle of democracy did not have true democracy. In Athens everyone was equal? Nope. In order to stand and be heard you needed to be male of the age of majority, and a free-man. Still even in this system the loudest was still heard. You talk loud, you get most attention, more people listen to you, your point of view is more likely to be heard. The idea of the political campaign is nothing new. So even the original system was somewhat limited.

This is not an attempt to change the way that things are. For the most part the system actually works and things get done, so long as the politicians get rid of the personal crap. I am not advocating some sort of rebellion. I am advocating that we open our eyes and see how the system really works, to see what can be done with our voice, and for pity's sake vote how you believe.

Cheers,

Henry.