Government By Patronage Is Not Democracy
R.M.B. Senanayake
Mr. S.L Gunasekera writing to the Daily Mirror has pointed out that devolution of power does not help to give power to the people and that what happens is that the power is exercised by local instead of national level politicians. So devolution only means devolution of power to local politicians and it does not enable the participation of the people. Yes indeed it is so. But why is it so? It is because we no longer have the institutions required for a liberal democracy. Democracy means nothing if it doesn’t ensure freedom for the people and equal participation of all the people in governance and not merely the majority of the people. This type of democracy which is the only democracy worth having requires a set of modern institutions. Liberal democracy is a modern evolution. Athenian democracy excluded women and slaves. American democracy excluded blacks until recent years.
The modern institutions required are not only an independent Judiciary but also a civil and military bureaucracy. These institutions must function according to pre-established laws and procedures and not arbitrarily according to the whims and fancies of those in these institutions who exercise these functions at the dictates of the politicians. The liberal democracy arose when government according to law implemented by a bureaucracy evolved. But this also requires the evolution of a rational cum legal bureaucracy not a patronage based bureaucracy.
