Political Decision-Making
To what extent should citizens express disagreement with their government's policies and actions? Freedom of expression, to disagree or agree with government policy, is intrinsic to democracy. People should be free to dissent as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others. In democratic government, policies are made with the consent of the people in their voting in of their representatives. This is decentralized decision-making, where policy-making is done at many levels, including the input of citizens. In an authoritarian system, there is no dissent. Policies are made and imposed from the highest level--centralized decision-making. The issue may rather be decentralized vs. centralized decision-making than to what extent should citizens be allowed to dissent. There is no, "You can disagree, but just a little bit." In 1690, John Locke said government must rest on the consent of the people. People who share the views of Locke value the individual's rights and liberties such as those to hold opinion differing from the majority or government, and would favour democracy and its decentralized decision-making. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) saw democracy and majority rule as reducing a country to the lowest common denominator. People who favour dictatorships agree with this idea believing most people are irrational and unfit to govern themselves. They value a strong leadership, guidance not unlike that of a parent. They believe the few who are capable--those with the intelligence and skill should be the ones making the decisions. The extent of the citizen's involvement in deciding government policy is a much-debated issue. Freedom to express opinion on government policy and action should be given to the extent that this expression does not infringe on another person's freedom. This is part of democracy and its system of decentralized decision-making. |
