Vusumuzi Dube
The first problem with electoral democracy, the world over, is that in every country the people who vote are fewer in numbers than those who do not. As such, countries tend to have their political destiny decided by the few in the absence of the many. It can be observed, therefore, that most democratic countries are actually under the political will and at times the tyranny of minorities. Someone might actually argue that an electoral and political vote of a few enlightened citizens might after all be democratic, but the fact remains that it is the voice of the many that should count in electoral democracy as we understand it today.
I contribute to this debate on electoral democracy and elections at a time when the world is going through a wave of what scholars have called anti-politics. Anti-politics, by definition, is strong opposition to and distrust that borders on contempt for traditional politics and other ways of negotiating power. Anti-politics tends to lead to apathy and popular disinterest in public affairs. As such, anti-politics is inimical to democracy which encourages and benefits from popular participation in politics and elections. One of Abraham Lincoln’s aphorisms is that: “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” Here Lincoln meant that when the people do not vote they have to sit, painfully, with the political decisions and choices of those who choose to vote. It is the same Lincoln who gifted the political world with the aphorism that “the ballot is stronger than a bullet” that has become a political cliché, tired and at times truly boring, but remains durable with some fresh truth.
The durable wisdom of the aphorism is that electioneering and voting are a peaceful and democratic alternative to bloody war. Bullets that were meant to be fired in battle are turned into ballots that are counted instead of dead bodies that war was to deliver. In other words, elections are a civilised way of political decision making and the choosing of governments and their leaders in any country. For that reason, anti-politics can be understood to be inimical to human progress and the progress of societies.
Anti-politics suggests that coups and wars, and other forms of violence should remain the way of choosing leaders and governments. My evaluation of elections as central to human progress and the progress of nations is not post-political in the sense that I intend not to overrate elections and ignore their well-known problematics.
The trouble with post-politics and elections
To resist the temptation of post-politics, which is political enchantment and naivete that one must not be found toying with, I must practice the scholarly habit of problematising things. In this case, I must look at the problematics of elections that may be leading to anti-politics in most parts of the world today. What it is that discourages populations and individuals and drives them away from the democratic habit of voting must concern us. It must also concern us, if we take critical inquiry seriously, if elections themselves as a system are a good way of negotiating power, after all. The argument that, after all, elections and democracy itself are a colonial imposition is too tired to be repeated here, today.
For such countries as African countries elections can be extremely expensive business that gobbles budgets that could have been deployed in much needy sectors like education, healthcare and shelter.
The expenses that elections create can be justified as worth the while considering their importance in delivering the envisaged good governments that can then work to deliver healthcare, education and shelter for the Africans, but Africans tend not to have enough money to minister to such basic and fundamental needs of the underdeveloped continent.
Instead of being a great and democratic system of competing for power in a peaceful way, elections, especially in Africa, are a dangerous source of divisions, conflict and violence. Elections divide populations and frequently become a challenge to the national question in a typical African country.
Not only rich candidates but also popular ones can afford elections. But popularity itself, as we might all guess, can be bought. The trouble is not only that popularity is for sale in politics, but it is also that popular and rich candidates are not necessarily good leaders. Popularity does not naturally translate to political performance. As such rich and popular Africans may buy themselves into power to the exclusion of good poor leaders. I am not here suggesting that poverty and good leadership go together but I am only observing how the poor are bought out of politics by the rich that may and may not be good leaders.
Voter education is overrated?
I have heard academics and some functionaries in the civil society argue that Africans need to conduct voter education to enable populations to vote wisely and effectively. I may not dispute that argument successfully in one day, but I can observe that what Africans might need is actually political education.
Voter education is not the same thing as political education. Good political education may produce both good leaders and good voters, in my view. Voter education may only produce efficient voters that may not make progressive political choices, I think. When political education is conducted well, one needs not worry about voter education as good voters and good leaders are produced by good political education. Lack of political education, after all, might be the biggest causality of anti-politics which may be as a result of political ignorance. The ancient Greeks may have been on point when they gave the title idiot to an individual that took no interest in public affairs and political activity. The age of anti-politics that is upon us might after all be the age of expensive elections and political idiocy.
Cetshwayo Zindabazezwe Mabhena writes from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in South Africa. This piece is a shortened version of an intervention made on the invitation of the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council and the Rivonia Circle, at the Sandton Convention Centre on 29 March, 2023. Contacts: [email protected]
Bongani Ndlovu