freedom or democracy?

A theory to which I’ve become more and more attracted is that it is possible to have freedom or democracy but it is not possible to have both.

The reason for this is simple. In a democracy everything eventually becomes political. Every opinion becomes a political opinion. Every aspect of life becomes a political issue. When something becomes a political issue people expect the government to do something about it. And governments doing something always ends up meaning governments passing more laws, introducing more regulations, establishing more statutory authorities, giving the police and the courts more powers. Our freedom to make our own decisions and to make up our own minds is further restricted.

There are plenty of examples. In the late 19th century many people, particularly in the U.S. and particularly Christians and feminists, were becoming more and more concerned about alcohol. Had it been merely a matter of people expressing their view that alcohol was a social problem and that maybe people should drink less it would have been no problem. But that’s not what happened. It became a political issue. The Progressives of the day latched onto it. There were demands that the government should do something about it. And the government did do something about it. The government introduced Prohibition. Whether you think alcohol is a good thing or a bad thing there’s no question that Prohibition was a disaster.

This was the first example of health becoming a political issue. There have been countless further examples since then. Today there are people who believe the government should ban sugar. There are people who see obesity as a political issue that the government should do something about. We are moving towards a situation in which people think it right and proper for governments to tell us what to eat, and how much we should eat. Democracy inevitably leads to a nanny state.

Sex became a political issue in the 19th century. This was another consequence of democracy. The Victorians may have been sexually repressed, they may have had severe views on the subject of sexual immorality, but at the beginning of the Victorian era there were surprisingly few actual laws dealing with sex. Sexual morality was seen as a matter that was best dealt with by churches, by communities, and by parents. As democracy advanced over the course of the 19th century sex became more and more a matter for government.

When motion pictures became popular the first thing governments did in democratic countries was to start censoring them. Even in the U.S. this happened. Despite the First Amendment numerous states established state censorship boards to censor movies. In a democracy censorship becomes a political issue and even when that country has a constitution that prevents censorship governments will find a way. In 1940 sixteen paintings by the famous Australian artist Norman Lindsay were seized and burnt by U.S. government officials.

Opinions have also become political issues. In the early 19th century when western countries such as Britain were most certainly not democratic there were lots of opinions that were not socially acceptable but nobody could prevent you from holding those opinions. Today, in our democratic world, holding the wrong opinions can destroy your life.

Ironically while democracies tend to become more and more totalitarian dictatorships seem to become progressively less oppressive over time. No matter what you think of communism it can’t be denied that the Soviet Union under Brezhnev was less oppressive that the Soviet Union under Lenin or Stalin. By the 1960s Francoist Spain was still authoritarian but it had become a relatively easy-going authoritarian state. It may be in the nature of dictatorships to become less totalitarian while it’s in the nature of democracies to become steadily more totalitarian.

Maybe you can have freedom or democracy but you can’t have both. Democracy may simply be incompatible with freedom.