As defined by Aristotle, Democracy is control of government by the free born or the poor at the same time present in majority.Does this definition holds to the form of democracy we are exercising in our state? Is it really empowering the free born and poor majority?
We can answer these questions by going into the structure of our Politics and Power Dynamics of our state. Power is the legitimate use of authority. We assert that our democratic representatives are chosen by our people. But are these representatives really from free born and poor majority?
In our country, people who come to power belong to a certain class only. Only the elite class or the Feudal Lords who have enough financial and influencial apparatuss can take part in elections. When a politician wants to come into power, he ensures public interests but when he is in power, his actions only refer to his personal motives or the interests of his class. If we see, there are a handfull of families who have been in power since independance and they all belonged to a certain class.
Hence, power is only cincentrated to a small class of people.
1 comment:
On the one hand you argue that power is the "legitimate use of authority." But on the other hand, you argue that it has been "concentrated [in] a small class of people" for the duration of Pakistan's history. Would you then agree that power has been illegitimately captured by a small group in Pakistani society in order to advance their interests over the interests of the masses? If so, what can be done to devolve power to the people and fix this problem?
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