A New Idea for Democracy

Democracy has a number of failings.  That does not mean that it is a bad system.  There can be few people who have enjoyed the benefits of democracy, and also experienced the other side of the coin in Muslim theocracies or Communist dictatorships, who would want to change the system, unless, of course, they stand to benefit from the imposition of the different system.

However that may be, there is one failing of democracy that has come with absolute, frightening clarity to the fore in South Africa.  That failing lies in the fact that, in a country with huge income disparity, the people who elect those who deal with the money are not the people who earn and pay over that money to the Government.

A Government is elected by the majority of voters.  In South Africa, with very few taxpayers putting up the money, those voters cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, have a meaningful representation in the ranks of voters at least equal to that of the beneficiaries of Government largesse.  To put it simply, the Governing Party uses the money of the few to pay to the many with the hope that it will persuade them to vote for that Party.  The taxpayers have, practically, no real say in how their money is being put to use, and the Government has no real obligation to use that money in the interests of those who earn it.

In any civilized society, most taxpayers are willing to contribute a reasonable portion of their income to ‘good causes’ which may include relief of poverty conditions for those who are, realistically, unable to fend for themselves.  Most taxpayers are willing to contribute to the education of the young of the society, to the maintenance of law and order, to the provision of infrastructure, to the development of the country.  However, most taxpayers are reluctant to support a system where tens, if not hundreds, of billions are stolen each year, where huge contracts for items and services of no value to the public are doled out with the main objective of benefitting those in power, where more billions are wasted by incompetence in Government, where policies are put in place to make it harder each year to earn the money that is taken by Government.  Unfortunately, the many who are supported by Government largesse are not so discriminating in who they put into power.  They see their greatest benefit as lying on the side of the Party which promises the largest hand-outs, or supports the highest wage payments, however destructive of the economy this might be, the greatest number of highly-paid civil service jobs.

Would it not be a better system where, for example, one-half of the politicians are elected by everyone old enough to vote, and the other half are elected by those who can prove that they paid income tax of, say, more than R5 000 in the average of the three past years?  In that way, those who pay the money that the ruling Party uses to bribe the voters could really believe that they had some say in where their money went, that the Government had their interests at heart.

There will be an outcry against this proposal, but it is not as silly as it seems.  The taxpayers who believe now that they are not getting a fair deal from Government are voting against that unfairness even now, the important factor being that they are voting with their feet and with their wallets. 

There is, at present, a large and increasing number of high-earning South Africans, Whites, Coloureds, Indians and Blacks, leaving this country to earn an income somewhere else, somewhere where they can believe that they are likely to get a fair return for their tax Rand.  They are leaving because they do not believe in democracy, South Africa style.  They are concerned for their future, and the future of their children.  They are adding their efforts, their skills, their capabilities and their tax Rands to another country.  These are the future hope of South Africa, the people who will bring development, wealth, expertise.  Surely it would be better for all concerned, with the possible exception of sleazy politicians and incompetent Government employees, to retain the services of those people in South Africa.  In earning the additional money that would generate the tax that is presently going missing, they would be creating the jobs that would remove the need for Government hand-outs.  The Government would become more efficient and effective, simply because the elected representatives of the people would become responsible for their actions to those who pay the bills, and so want value for their money.  The cake would become bigger for all, and the slices being doled out to the unemployed, as well as disappearing under the table, would become smaller.  Everyone would benefit, and democracy would become an institution more attractive to most of those affected by it.