This is the final segment of a three (3) part session.
Continued from Part 2DIFFUSION OF POWER
The ideal of Jeffersonian democracy was to distribute power so widely and, through institutional safeguards, to KEEP it so diffuse that no individual or small group could exercise significant power over the rest of society.
Frontier American society - based upon individual land ownership by economically independent and largely self-sufficient farmers - approached this ideal very closely. Backing up his economic independence with his long-barrelled rifle, the typical American of 1787 had a great deal of social power. It was not power over other people, but bargaining power, the power of real alternatives, and the power to resist outside intervention. To put it crudely, he could tell the whole outside world to "go to Hell" without fear of serious reprisals.
Jefferson feared the development of industry and great cities because he realized that they must inevitably lead to increasing concentration of social power, both economic and governmental. Sure enough, the Industrial Revolution brought with it previously undreamed-of possibilities for concentration of social power. Mass production required concentrated economic power, and Big Business brought with it Big Labor and Big Government.
Today we live in a crowded, highly interdependent society in which few of us have much social power of our own. Our basic economic independence and security are gone. Most of us work for someone else and power-diffusing economic competition is kept within "comfortable" bounds by the few companies that dominate each industry.
If direct dispersion of power were the only way democracy could be realized, there would be little hope for it in modern industrial society. Luckily there are other principles upon which we can rely to achieve social power equity, principles we can find in the U. S. Constitution.
CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF POWER
Wherever social power becomes highly concentrated, the democratic principle of equality can only be maintained by making this concentrated power CONSTITUTIONALLY RESPONSIBLE to those over whom it is exercised. ("Responsible" here means "answerable" or "accountable.")
In 1787 the framers of the Constitution - familiar with both the irresponsible power of the King and the failure of the weak Articles of Confederation - set up a system of government power concentrated enough to provide for the economic development and security of the nation yet constitutionally responsible to the people of the country.
When citizens delegate their sovereign power to their representatives by means of their vote, they don't lose that power. At each new election they take it back and re-delegate it. They can even exercise their power between elections, using recall and impeachment provisions.
The test of constitutional responsibility of power is whether it is really controlled by those over whom it is exercised and whether they can take it back through normal, legal, institutionalized procedures. If this is not the case, then the concentrated power is constitutionally irresponsible.
This has nothing to do whether the power is religiously or morally responsible. There have been benevolent dictators, kings and popes who were accountable to their consciences and not to the people. Although under some of the best of them people may have been happier than under the flounderings of a popular democracy, such idyllic conditions seldom outlasted their reigns, if even that long.
While moral responsibility is a wonderful thing, it is no substitute for constitutional responsibility. From a social power perspective, any power that is not constitutionally responsible is considered irresponsible. And all irresponsible power is dangerous, although it may be tolerable if it is not concentrated. Likewise all concentrated power is dangerous - although it is often useful and, if constitutionally responsible, is compatible with democracy.
Social power becomes really destructive of democracy only when it is both concentrated and irresponsible.
When concentrated power is made constitutionally responsible, the lines of responsibility must flow, directly or indirectly, to those over whom the power is exercised.
Power which is national in effect must be responsible to all citizens; power which affects only a limited area or interest group should be answerable only to that particular area or interest group. This is the basic principle of FEDERALISM - the constitutional decentralization of power. While this is often difficult to apply in practice, it is vital to democracy and must be kept clearly in mind.
INSTITUTIONAL CHECKS AND BALANCES
Constitutional responsibility, while vital, is insufficient to restrain abuse by concentrated power in real life.
There must be explicit constitutional limits, or checks, on concentrated power, such as the Bill of Rights. And those checks will only remain effective where there is some countervailing power to enforce them. Thus every concentrated power should be balanced by some other concentrated power.
In order to prevent any particular part of the government system from grasping excessive power and nullifying the constitutional checks, the framers of the constitution divided power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches, and between the federal, state and local levels of government. Each power center in the system was thus balanced by others with a different focus of power and interests.
These constitutional checks and balances, however, were all directed at the control of government power. This was appropriate for the era in which the Constitution was written. However, by the end of the Civil War, economic power became concentrated into great corporate trusts under the leadership of the "robber barons" of American industry and finance, and government power ceased to be the main problem of American democracy.
In the last century the regulation and active redistribution of social power has become a major government activity and has greatly increased the size and power of government. When economic powerholders complain about "big government," this is the aspect of government that bothers them.
In modern societies many institutions can and do check and counter-balance concentrated governmental and economic power.
• Free public education means that knowledge-power is widely diffused among the people.
• Laws like the Freedom of Information Act offer vital knowledge-power to citizens.
• The system of civil law allows citizen groups to check both government and corporate power abuses.
As we become less economically independent and less individually powerful compared with centralized governmental and economic powerholders, we increasing turn to organizations as a means of combining our little power with the little power of other individuals in joint action. The organizational form of power becomes of the utmost importance. We see this in:
• Labor unions, farm organizations, consumer cooperative societies, professional organizations, and interest groups.
While such groups are the chief organizational balances in democratic society, they have several weaknesses. First, they are frequently quite undemocratic internally. Second, their membership is far too limited, causing power inequities between members and non-members. And thirdly, they often act as pressure groups, creating impacts on areas of society to which they are not constitutionally responsible. Interest groups, corporations, etc., should not be able to exercise predominant influence in the making of decisions which are of greater interest to other groups or to the society as a whole.
We could summarize the major task in democratizing our society as one of increasing internal and external constitutional responsibility of both governments and corporations - and the many groups that constitute the countervailing powers to them - with particular attention to the media, which connects them all and impacts everyone.
Our goal would be to balance the power of all groups so that there is general equality of social power between individuals regardless of the groups to which they belong. Then we will have a real democracy.
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO DEMOCRACY
Industrialism, which gave birth to unprecedented concentrations of economic power, has generated, as well, a dynamic towards democracy.
Industrial civilization has required a high degree of popular education. Education, in turn, has brought widespread recognition of the possibility of democracy, thus creating a desire for it which, by its nature, tends to remain insatiable until it is achieved.
Furthermore, industrialism has been based on the scientific method, not only in its pursuit of physical technology but in the social organization of production. Science has a habit of prefering workability to ideology and is thus a close cousin of democracy. Democracy is fundamentally utilitarian in its pursuit of the welfare of its citizens and science requires freedom in order to do its work. It is significant that many leaders of recent democratic movements have been scientists.
Finally, more and more industrial psychologists and organizational development experts have, since the early 1930s, been finding that democratic participation by workers in enterprises where they work results in increased efficiency, lower costs, and the generation of profitable initiatives. In our increasingly competitive global market, businesses will be forced to move in this direction. The impact of democratization of the workplace is incalculable.
These factors alone may make democracy inevitable.
The democratization of societies, combined with modern technologies that make earth a "global village," makes it possible to envision a single democratic society encompassing the whole world. A democratic federal world government could be developed out of our present international organizations. The urgency and transnational nature of today's economic and ecological crises, combined with the potential totality of modern warfare, could certainly provide the necessary impetus. And the possibility of millions of people, for the first time in history, having adequate leisure to become politically informed and active provides the opportunity for change - an opportunity that must be taken, of course, if this dream is to be realized.
The centuries-long cycle of concentration, corruption, redistribution and renewed concentration of social power can be broken. Democracy won't end humanity's history of conflict, but it can provide the institutional framework in which conflicts are settled nonviolently and in which concentrations of irresponsible power are consciously prevented before they can become dangerous.
Governments must either move ahead and continually reconstruct their societies along democratic lines, and thus receive the active support of the majority, or they must conciliate groups who hold concentrated irresponsible power and thus lose the active support of the majority, creating popular opposition which will inevitably overthrow them.
Only a society based on a democratic structure of power can endure in the long run. If our world is to survive, it will survive as a democracy.
SOME FORMS OF SOCIAL POWER
• Economic power
o Industrial or productive power to control production, resources and labor
o Financial power to buy or control things with money or credit
o Market power to influence consumption, production, prices, wages or other market conditions.
• Governmental power
o Legislative power to make the rules governing the acquisition, distribution and use of social power
o Police power to enforce laws or the interests of powerholders
o Judicial power to make judgments about the use and balance of social power
o Regulatory power to supervise economic and political activities
o Bureaucratic power to enable or resist the implementation of policies
• Physical power
o Physical force, violence and the threat of violence to coerce the behavior of others
• Political power
o Organizational power to coordinate the actions of many people
o Propaganda power to influence public opinion, motivation and experience of reality
• Media power
o Media power to influence or control information and communication and people's ability to give and receive them
• Knowledge power
o Knowledge to comprehend circumstances, to predict and plan, and to create effects - particularly by knowing how to use other forms of power
• Personal power
o Leadership to motivate and coordinate other people
o Persuasion to mobilize people's awareness and opinions
o Energy and initiative to begin and carry out activities
o Intelligence to comprehend meaning and solve problems
o Technical skill to manipulate physical resources and barriers
o Love to encourage people to drop their defenses, to respond and grow
o Integrity to inspire reciprocal honesty, loyalty and support
o Ambition to motivate the accumulation and use of social power
o Strategic and tactical skill to create and utilize situations to best advantage
o Inspirational ability to motivate people and bring out their best
• Situational power
o Security to give bargaining power & freedom to maneuver
o Advantageous position from which to use other forms of power
o Invisibility and secrecy to limit others' ability to interfere
• Cultural and institutional power (can be used but not possessed)
o Social institutions and traditions define the context in which power is exercised
o Laws and constitutions define the limits and channels of power
o Ideas provide a focus around which to mobilize people, and a direction to go
o Public opinion constitutes the extent of popular support or opposition
End
It would be advantageous to read all the Parts in sequencial order.
Thanks for your time.
Walk Good.
