9.4 Democracy and politics
Perception spheres allow us to put the main components of a democracy into perspective:
Societies fill these neutral components with their own historical content—sometimes to such an extent that they subvert the very purpose of these components. Even communist countries held ‘elections,’ claimed ‘democracy,’ and had constitutions, yet their politicians twisted democratic principles to fit communist values. Genuine democracy can be destroyed when politicians and political values take precedence over democratic principles.
The reason for the danger of democracy being stolen is that democratic principles are closer to Democracy than politicians are. Politicians are often closer to their political values than to democratic principles. For many politicians, democratic principles are just the means to be used, not the goal to be achieved.
Democracy itself can be seen via Perception Spheres as one of the four political systems around which oscillated all political life in modern history.
In monarchy the concrete monarch is the central point of all political life.
The communism is based on the idea that one general group called world proletariat must be granted all political and economic powers, administered through revolutionaries and functionaries of communist parties.
Nazis believe that their nation should be strong, pure and autonomous. They aim to achieve this by “cleansing” their nation of those deemed weak and impure groups they believe do not deserve any autonomy.
Democracy is the essential political system for modern society. It has the capacity to include and balance elements of the other three systems: the monarchical figure, along with leftist and rightist tendencies—whose extreme forms are communism and Nazism.
Populist politics selectively uses various elements of these 4 political systems to reach its own power – driven goals.