Grade 11 IB - Human Rights Debate

Lies, fearmongering and fables: that’s our democracy
People power can challenge the status quo, but only if we understand our political
system has inherent flaws
George Monbiot
What if democracy doesn’t work? What if it never has and never will? What if government of
the people, by the people, for the people is a fairytale? What if it functions as a justifying myth
for liars and charlatans?
There are plenty of reasons to raise these questions. The lies, exaggerations and fearmongering
on both sides of the Brexit non-debate; the xenophobic fables that informed the Hungarian 5
referendum; Donald Trump’s ability to shake off almost any scandal and exposure; the election
of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, who gleefully compares himself to Hitler: are these isolated
instances or do they reveal a systemic problem?
Democracy for Realists, published earlier this year by the social science professors Christopher
Achen and Larry Bartels, argues that the “folk theory of democracy” – the idea that citizens 10
make coherent and intelligible policy decisions, on which governments then act – bears no
relationship to how it really works. Or could ever work.
Voters, they contend, can’t possibly live up to these expectations. Most are too busy with jobs
and families and troubles of their own. When we do have time off, not many of us choose to
spend it sifting competing claims about the fiscal implications of quantitative easing. Even when 15
we do, we don’t behave as the theory suggests.
Our folk theory of democracy is grounded in an Enlightenment notion of rational choice. This
proposes that we make political decisions by seeking information, weighing the evidence and
using it to choose good policies, then attempting to elect a government that will champion those
policies. In doing so, we compete with other rational voters, and seek to reach the unpersuaded 20
through reasoned debate.
In reality, the research summarised by Achen and Bartels suggests, most people possess almost no
useful information about policies and their implications, have little desire to improve their state of
knowledge, and have a deep aversion to political disagreement. We base our political decisions on
who we are rather than what we think. In other words, we act politically – not as individual, 25
rational beings but as members of social groups, expressing a social identity. We seek out the
political parties that seem to correspond best to our culture, with little regard to whether their
policies support our interests. We remain loyal to political parties long after they have ceased
to serve us.
© David Ripley, Inthinking

http://www.thinkib.net/englishb
Of course, shifts do happen, sometimes as a result of extreme circumstances, sometimes 30
because another party positions itself as a better guardian of a particular cultural identity. But
they seldom involve a rational assessment of policy.
The idea that parties are guided by policy decisions made by voters also seems to be a myth; in
reality, the parties make the policies and we fall into line. To minimise cognitive dissonance –
the gulf between what we perceive and what we believe – we either adjust our views to those of 35
our favoured party or avoid discovering what the party really stands for. This is how people end
up voting against their interests. ....
You can read more of this article at ...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/04/democracy-people-power-governments-policy
Hyperlinks
In the original online version, the phrases in italics in the second paragraph were each linked to the following
sites. You can go to these sites to fill in the full background information
lies, exaggerations and fearmongering

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/03/claims-brexit-could-save-nhs-
dangerous-lie-ex-health-secretaries
xenophobic fables
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/03/hungarian-jews-concerned-about-toxic-
referendum-discourse
Donald Trump
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/lyin-trump-a-weekly-fact-check
Rodrigo Duterte
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/30/rodrigo-duterte-vows-to-kill-3-million-
drug-addicts-and-likens-himself-to-hitler

Detailed understanding
Overall summary: To what extent does the extract express the author’s own personal point of view?
..................................................................................................................................
True/False and Justification – decide whether each of the following statements is true or false, and then
copy into the space provided a short quotation from the text which supports your judgement.
1. The ‘folk theory of democracy’ describes accurately how democracy works.

True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
2. Few people ever think carefully about the arguments for particular policies.
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
3. In theory, democracy involves persuading people with good arguments
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
4. People like having political arguments.
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
5. Most people vote the same way as people who they think of as similar to them.
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
6. We may change our vote if a new party seems better able to protect who we think we are.
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................
7. In modern democracies, it’s the voters who decide what the policies will be.
True? False?
Justification: ..................................................................................................................................


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Lies, fearmongering and fables: that’s our democracy

© David Ripley, Inthinking

You can read more of this article at ...

lies, exaggerations and fearmongering

© David Ripley, Inthinking

1. The ‘folk theory of democracy’ describes accurately how democracy works.

© David Ripley, Inthinking

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