Opinion

The 17th and 18th centuries are known as the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. The Enlightenment era produced several thinkers, philosophers, lawyers, scientists and innovators who not only questioned the validity of traditional authority but came up with new ideas, thinking and innovations. Thinkers like David Hume, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Baruch Spinoza, Voltaire and several others were the products of this Enlightenment era.

Europe experienced some tumultuous events during this period, of which the Glorious Revolution of Britain and French Revolution are the most noted ones. Antoine Destutt de Tracy was one of the noted scholars and philosophers of France in the post-revolution era, who coined the term ideology as a science of ideas in the later part of 18th century.

The French Revolution erupted like a volcano that shook entire Europe. It was a watershed in European political development. Inspired and stirred by Rousseau’s dictum ‘Man is born free and he is everywhere in chains’,  ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ (liberty equality, fraternity) became the motto of the French Revolution that brought about rational and radical thinking and change not only in Europe but also across the world. Since then, individual freedom has become a sacrosanct of human life in the world.

However, the same revolutionary France that raised the flag of liberty came under the Reign of Terror unleashed by Maximillian Robespierre and his company in the name of furthering the revolution. During the Reign of Terror, hundreds of thousands French were jailed and tens of thousands were executed without trial for questioning and criticizing the new regime in Paris. Antoine Tracy was one of them, who was imprisoned for his simple crime of reading and supporting the ideas and works of philosophers like John Locke and others.

‘Ideology and Utopia’

Philosophy is the way of looking at life, society and the world, whereas ideology is a belief system or one’s belief on certain ideas and ideals. German sociologist Karl Mannheim in ‘Ideology and Utopia’ says ‘ ideology is a thought system that serves to defend a particular social order, and that broadly expresses the interests of its dominant or ruling group’. For Karl Marx, ideology is about ‘delusion and mystification’, while Frederic Engels calls ideology a ‘false consciousness’.  

Ideology is the soul of politics. Ideology sets forth the direction of politics for the common good of society. All changes taken place so far in social, political and economic fronts in the world are the products of ideologies. Political ideologies, in principle, seek to build a better and just society for which they have their own set of political, social and economic prescriptions. However, when it comes to practice, politicians seek power, and further consolidate the hold on power under the veneer of ideology. It is not the ideology alone that builds the society and state but the vision, action, honesty and intention of those who advocate and implement them.

No ideology functions in the absence of honest and competent leaders. It is this reason why ancient Greek philosopher Plato envisioned a competent ruler for just polity saying “Philosopher should be king and the king should become philosopher”. Plato, in ‘The Republic’, talks about a just society and clean politics for which he has proposed three conditions: equal opportunities for all, abolition of private property for ruling elites, competent and learned leadership.

Contrary to Plato’s concept of moral and just polity, the present day politics is in a state of dismay which can be described as what George Bernard Shaw said ‘the last resort for the scoundrels’. Democracy is slowly turning into oligarchy and kleptocracy. This is not in a particular country or society but a general trend across the world. Money and power corrupts rulers and ultimately politics and policy everywhere in the world. However, this is more in the developing world of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Demagogues and dictators

Although liberal democracy has been a universal political nomenclature, its quality is degrading which American political scientist Larry Diamond calls it democratic erosion. Defect is not in the system but with those who handle the system. Honest and accountable leaders accompanied by critical citizenry are the guardrails in a democratic polity, which gives birth to demagogues and dictators.

Adolf Hitler of Weimer Republic, Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines and Alberto Fujimori of Peru were once political celebrities in their countries. They rose to power constitutionally and democratically. But they eventually turned out to be world’s notorious dictators. Antoine Gramsci, an Italian Marxist politician and writer, once said ‘every state is a dictatorship’, indicating the inherent nature of power and politicians. Rulers tend to be authoritarian once they rise to power.

The quality of democracy, even now, is declining and authoritarian tendency is getting dominant also in countries with democratic systems of governance. The 2022 Freedom House report states that 60 countries in the world suffered declines in democratic performance, while only 25 improved. According to the report, 38 percent of the global population now lives in ‘not free’ countries and only about 20 percent live in free countries.

This trend is more dominant in both old and new democracies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Freedom House further warns: “The global order is nearing a tipping point, and if democracy’s defenders do not work together to help guarantee freedom for all people, the authoritarian model will prevail”.

Democratic deficiency is largely attributed to the marked inconsistency between ideals and practice in politics. Political parties and their leaders seem to have divorced from their ideology. American political scientist Elmer Eric Schattschneider has rightly said ‘political parties are the orphans of political philosophy’. Ideology and ideals are not in the core of the parties and politicians but have been pushed to the margin in the name of realist and pragmatist approach like what China’s Deng Xiaoping said “it does not matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice”.  

Nepali politicos

We have political parties of different ideological hues. Nepali Congress is the party that was founded on liberal democratic ideals and ideology. The other dominant players are the communist parties mainly the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre. The communist parties’ ideological allegiance is to Marxism, Leninism and also Maoism, which in principle are opposed to liberal democratic ideas. CPN-UML has come to accept, in principle, the multi-party democracy and competitive political order but the CPN-Maoist Centre is of the view that its acceptance of a multi-party parliamentary system is merely a tactical move to achieve its strategic goal - communism.

Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre are diametrically opposed in terms of ideology but they are together in the government and mull contesting the election on a common platform. This is a marked ideological inconsistency and divorce from ideology. Now Nepali Congress is not truly a liberal party and communist parties are also not like what Karl Marx envisioned as a party of proletariats. The power is principle and immediate gain is the motto which dictates the parties to make both ethical and unethical compromise and alliances.

When principle and ideology cease to guide, political parties turn out to be gangs of thugs and scoundrels slowly alienating from the people, while politics no longer remains as a noble profession. Politicians and political parties command the least trust and credibility in the eyes of the people. If such a scenario continues it may jeopardise the fate of democratic system from which only demagogues may try to reap the benefit.