Narrow definitions of democracy based solely on whether or not elections take place (or whether more than one party exists on paper or not) often miss the broader democracy participatory attributes.
The Election Democracy has caused people of Botswana and most parts of the world to have little interest in identity with the state and little interest in democracy; they have been conditioned to think that interest in democracy politics is limited to mainly voting and hope that the elected State authorities will deliver the development agenda as promised during election campaigns. For them, democracy means the selection of political decision-makers from among competing elites by means of popular elections. The role of the people is simply to produce a government. The people are sovereign only on election – day. Once they have done their job, they should go back to their private affairs and leave governing to the elite they have selected. Under this concept of democracy, the term simply means, in the words of Joseph Schumpeter, “that the people have the opportunity of accepting or refusing the men who are to rule them.” Such a political system is simply the selection in multiparty elections of leaders from among competing elites.
The political system of the day has created a mind set among many of Batswana, that the government takes care of everything and people wait until the government comes in and takes care of the problem, even though the community may be perfectly capable of doing it themselves. Popular participation is prevented in election democracy and democratisation among the subjects at the grassroots level is rarely promoted. The election democracy which is elite oriented encourages passivity, apathy and non-involvement of people in the decision making processes. There is an appearance of democracy, but real democracy and accountability remain an illusion in election democracy.
Election politics has even made political leaders of all parties in Botswana, to detach themselves with the ordinary masses by identifying themselves with bourgeois attitudes and ideologies. Their senseless political fights and splits are as a result of their concealed motives of power, prestige, wealth and social positions for themselves. This has resulted into a culture of personality politics where political aspirants are attacked, insulted, denigrated and ploughed down. Most political campaigns are full of sophistically manipulative language. Intense possessive individualism and financial opportunism has become the template for human personality socialisation under election politics. The late – recent comical fight for the leader of opposition in parliament is a living proof. Throughout much of the election democracy, we have lived through an astonishing period in which politics has been depoliticised and commodified.
Regarding voting as the absolute determinant sphere of democracy is an over simplistic mono casual explanation of democracy. Such simplification is dangerously misleading and it displays an attitude of arrogant, narrow and closed minded as it is completely unable to come to grips to the fact that politics as science needs to be examined and questioned before one can consider the voting process. Understanding the right to vote as a mere formal procedure, leads into an abusive relationship between the electorate and the State where the electorate becomes the abused.
A voting exercise without a high standard of proof (from political parties) by electorates remains only a suggestion box for slaves. This was said well by John Maynard Keynes that ‘practical men, who believe themselves, to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist’. You cannot argue for voting without having scrutinized ideologies and programmes of existing political parties including your own. The purpose of political philosophy is science of reason and evidence of empiricism. A confident, well educated good thinker would not put up with unconditional voting. Like a scientist such an individual, uses logic to examine the political arena before deciding to register and vote for he/ she does not want to perpetuate the status quo but aims to change it.
Deepening Batswana`s level of consciousness and taking the first step in creating a community of informed citizens who actively participate in their government is the way to go about reversing the political predicament which they find themselves in. Batswana, especially the working class and the poor must be given a distinction on the fundamentalism of democracy. Politicians must strive to give people the accurate meaning of democracy.
The premise of democracy is that all men are by nature equal. This does not mean that they are all equally strong, equally bright, equally charming, equally anything else except one thing; they are all equally persons, and the most important thing is that all persons are of equal worth. One person is not worth more than another. The intrinsic dignity and worth of all persons is the same, hence we are citizens and no more subjects. The absolute and perfect justice of democracy is that all men are treated as they should be treated, namely, as persons, as political animals, and as full equals regardless of whether they have registered and voted before.
We must acknowledge that participation and citizenship are necessary components for the creation of a healthy democracy. The broader significance of participatory democracy is that it addresses social exclusions and incomplete citizenship through the increased accountability of elected officials to the citizens by directly involving the latter in the political arena, redistributing power by expanding popular deliberation and participation in policy areas and redirecting revenue to address the concerns of the people. In order to address poverty, social exclusion and corruption in Botswana, one must acknowledge that democracy is more than free and fair elections; it is a path to social transformation.
Also, it is necessary to complement representative democracy with participatory democracy. This effort contributes to the strengthening of democracy by providing the tools necessary for citizens to influence decisions concerning their economic and social wellbeing. Democracy must be about helping people to understand that the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship in a representative democracy include defending fair and open political and legal procedures and institutions, supporting unbiased media, advocating civil rights for all, and protecting civil liberties such as freedom of speech, choice, association and religion.
Of course, citizens must actively engage in the political process at every level, by voting in national and local elections, by being aware of current legislation, and by taking an active interest in foreign policy as well as domestic policy. But commitment to representative democracy implies that citizens continue to work for the enfranchisement of all, with civil rights granted equally to all.
Most importantly public education on economic democracy is needed for political democracy. Conditions of equality must be more than conditions of political equality as those who are poor, illiterate and uneducated cannot exercise their full political and legal rights; they must be conditions of economic equality, too for the just distribution of resources. It is not enough, as many in Botswana are doing, to debate the details of tax and education policies, budgets, and trade agreements in search of a positive political agenda.
Nor is it enough to craft slogans with broad mass appeal aimed at winning the next election or policy debate. The different economic theories of established parties must be explained to the citizens so that they have an understanding which parties are for palliative economics (i.e. easing the pains of economic misery) and which are for development economics (i.e. radically changing the productive structures of Botswana). It is very important for citizens to know where the economic theories of established parties rest as they have long term effect on the success or failure of Botswana`s economy. The economic theories depending on which party has chosen have the potential to undermine all semblances of democratic governance.
If we are clear in our information dissemination, then citizens will begin to understand that achieving a genuine place in the democratic process comes about self activity that goes beyond voting, and then they might begin to demonstrate how to counteract the various corrosive political and socioeconomic forces that plague the poor. It is only after giving citizens full information (which must be free of malice) on the different political organisations that political fanatics may then begin to canvass for votes. To make noise about ritual voting is promoting an act of coercive appeal to electorates urging them to legitimise hierarchical and hegemonic system which cannot bring real effect and change irrespective of its slogans, colours and name. It is indeed to plunge oneself to shameful subjugation as an eligible voter.
