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Bourgeois democracy, or liberal democracy, is a means of setting up a capitalist economy in such a way that democratic institutions are composed of, accountable to and beneficial for the bourgeoisie. This allows the settlement of internal disputes between the bourgeois without disrupting the overall power structure of the state. These governments proclaim to be democratic, despite the fact that the control a citizen has over their government is minimal unless they are of the owning class. Bourgeois democracy does not benefit the majority of people and excludes the proletariat from power.[1]
Voting systems[edit | edit source]
First past the post[edit | edit source]
First past the post is one of the oldest bourgeois democratic systems, and is the electoral system used by the USA and the UK among others. This system works on a winner takes it all basis meaning that if a party gets the most votes in a constituency they take control of the entire constituency, so a politician can get 100% of the control of a constituency with as little as 25% of the votes if the votes are sufficiently split. The party that controls at least 50% of these constituencies gains full control of the government until the next election. Although smaller parties can sometimes gain a seat, this system usually leads to an effective two party system as the population believes they have to vote for one of the two biggest parties or risk wasting their vote.[2]
Proportional representation[edit | edit source]
Proportional representation is an alternative electoral system that is used by most EU countries, it is claimed by liberals who accept the faults of first past the post to be a fairer electoral system. This system works on a basis of control of a constituency being divided by the percentage of votes each party receives meaning it is rare for any one party to have the 50% of seats needed to control the government. This system usually leads to coalition governments between parties with similar views banding together to reach the 50% needed to form a government, allowing radical parties a higher chance of gaining power, although communist parties are usually excluded from this.[2]
Assessments[edit | edit source]
Vladimir Lenin characterized the bourgeois idea of "democracy" as a "democracy for an insignificant minority" and a "democracy for the rich". He highlighted "legal" restrictions on suffrage, the control of mass media by bourgeois institutions, and informal obstacles to exercising theoretical "rights" as examples of covert mechanisms intended to limit the genuine participation of the proletariat in democracy.[3] Lenin also emphasized that parliamentarism in a bourgeois democracy simply enables members within the ruling class to resolve their own power struggles more effectively, while the masses remain effectively repressed.[4]
Writer Gore Vidal noted that there are no meaningful differences between the two major political parties in the United States, and that beneath their superficial distinctions, both are firmly committed to maintaining the interests of wealthy elites. He refers to this oligarchy as the "Property Party".[5]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1918). “Democracy” and Dictatorship. [MIA]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Proletarian writers (2022-12-05). "What is really meant by the demand for a ‘general election now’?" Proletarian. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
- ↑ “Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich — that is the democracy of capitalist society. If we look more closely into the machinery of capitalist democracy... we see restriction after restriction upon democracy. These restrictions, exceptions, exclusions, obstacles for the poor seem slight... but in their sum total these restrictions exclude and squeeze out the poor from politics, from active participation in democracy.”
Vladimir Lenin (1917). The state and revolution: 'The economic basis of the withering away of the state; The transition from captialism to communism'. Moscow: Progress Publishers. - ↑ “To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament — this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.”
Vladimir Lenin (1917). The state and revolution: 'Experience of the Paris Commune of 1871. Marx's analysis; Abolition of parliamentarism'. Moscow: Progress Publishers. - ↑ “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party... it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”
Gore Vidal (1977). Matters of Fact and of Fiction: Essays 1973-76 (p. 268). New York: Random House.