The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Lisa Saye December 5, 2020
Afghanistan National Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Lisa Saye, 2019
Democracy’s pronouns are We and Us. One can define democracy as the collective voice of the people choosing, selecting and debating the merits of particular public goods and public services. When citizens believe that government has been designed to neglect their needs, more often than not they insist on democracy to make things better.
Democracy is society’s most common revolution. Representative democracy is the world’s battle-cry of freedom and freedom is the main reason for its universal attraction.
Democracy is not a case study—it is a history. It is the original empowerment zone. It is a unit of organization as well as an index of political consumption. And while politics is transactional, democracy is not. Democratic traditions are upheld through the cooperation of citizens. Overlapping interaction is focal in this type of cooperation, therefore, a limited relationship to community would be insufficient.
One might observe that democracy, in the current environment, appears to be dented a little. In many parts of the world that may be true. But democracy is still the single unifying practice that makes all aspects of public policy possible. It does not disguise defeat or damage. It corrects them.
Democracy is the one form of government that is consistently in some sort of revival. When government fails to serve the people and the people call for more representative elements, what democracy provides becomes a planning opportunity. Good governments know that once democracy is initiated its tenets are non-negotiable. Citizens are encouraged to pursue their interests in whichever lane is moving and stable democracies allow that to happen. Policies and public programs are not legislative apologies in free countries: they are government’s direct intentions empowered through voting.
The notion of one person, one vote offers citizens an indefinable zone of influence regarding the way that they are governed. Our duty as public administrators is to recognize the citizen’s role in government-by-the-people and to facilitate the environment to make that possible. We are not charged with personal interpretation of policy. Our job is to reinforce the ideas of equality, justice and compassion as part of the power continuum that citizens in democracies expect. Anything less is democratic malpractice.
Writing is memory’s tool for recording events. Our brains could not hold all of life’s details and photos can only capture a blink. Paragraphs are gifts and pages are blessings. We write to relax, we write to convey and we write to tell. In democracies, the constitution is the government’s tell. A really democratic constitution represents an opportunity for the implementation of a collective vision with the option for political expansion. In the United States, we are reminded of that expansion each time we read the Preamble to our Constitution. The phrase, “In orderto form a more perfect union,” tells us that government perfection is a moving target and one which we take very seriously. In a democracy, toying with the goal of better and of more representative government is nothing less than an act of vandalism.
To be sure, democracies do not always get everything right. Perfection is a noble idea that at times is measurable, yet it is never completely attainable. No country, state, municipality or city is perfect, even when they subscribe to democratic values. Thus, the public administrator is hired, elected or appointed to assist the citizen and to discern politics from need.
For the citizen, democracy is where one goes to breathe. It is the refuge where all are equal. Many of the world’s citizens have known no other system of government, whereas other citizens can only imagine its structure. However, if poorly administered, democracy can drown in the anxiety of a tweet and fail to live up to the expectations of its citizens.
Democracy has long been the preferred system of governance for many countries. It looks different in some places and it is implemented along custom and cultural lines in other places. It has borrowed best practices from other systems and transformed those practices to fit democratic spaces. It is different and at the same time it is the same. It is as original as it is old. And, while democracy has survived wars, natural disasters, protests and pandemics, it still remains a timeless system of public management and representative self-government.
The Photo is the Afghanistan National Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Lisa Saye, 2019
Author: Lisa Saye teaches Applied Research Methods for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul University. Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. On July 9, 2019, Dr. Saye delivered the Pre-Departure Orientation Keynote Address at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for Fulbrighters leaving for Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Saye earned her Master’s in Human Resource Management at Troy University and her Doctorate in Public Administration at The University of Alabama. She can be reached by email at [email protected].
Democracy—The Original Empowerment Zone
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Lisa Saye
December 5, 2020
Afghanistan National Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Lisa Saye, 2019
Democracy’s pronouns are We and Us. One can define democracy as the collective voice of the people choosing, selecting and debating the merits of particular public goods and public services. When citizens believe that government has been designed to neglect their needs, more often than not they insist on democracy to make things better.
Democracy is society’s most common revolution. Representative democracy is the world’s battle-cry of freedom and freedom is the main reason for its universal attraction.
Democracy is not a case study—it is a history. It is the original empowerment zone. It is a unit of organization as well as an index of political consumption. And while politics is transactional, democracy is not. Democratic traditions are upheld through the cooperation of citizens. Overlapping interaction is focal in this type of cooperation, therefore, a limited relationship to community would be insufficient.
One might observe that democracy, in the current environment, appears to be dented a little. In many parts of the world that may be true. But democracy is still the single unifying practice that makes all aspects of public policy possible. It does not disguise defeat or damage. It corrects them.
Democracy is the one form of government that is consistently in some sort of revival. When government fails to serve the people and the people call for more representative elements, what democracy provides becomes a planning opportunity. Good governments know that once democracy is initiated its tenets are non-negotiable. Citizens are encouraged to pursue their interests in whichever lane is moving and stable democracies allow that to happen. Policies and public programs are not legislative apologies in free countries: they are government’s direct intentions empowered through voting.
The notion of one person, one vote offers citizens an indefinable zone of influence regarding the way that they are governed. Our duty as public administrators is to recognize the citizen’s role in government-by-the-people and to facilitate the environment to make that possible. We are not charged with personal interpretation of policy. Our job is to reinforce the ideas of equality, justice and compassion as part of the power continuum that citizens in democracies expect. Anything less is democratic malpractice.
Writing is memory’s tool for recording events. Our brains could not hold all of life’s details and photos can only capture a blink. Paragraphs are gifts and pages are blessings. We write to relax, we write to convey and we write to tell. In democracies, the constitution is the government’s tell. A really democratic constitution represents an opportunity for the implementation of a collective vision with the option for political expansion. In the United States, we are reminded of that expansion each time we read the Preamble to our Constitution. The phrase, “In order to form a more perfect union,” tells us that government perfection is a moving target and one which we take very seriously. In a democracy, toying with the goal of better and of more representative government is nothing less than an act of vandalism.
To be sure, democracies do not always get everything right. Perfection is a noble idea that at times is measurable, yet it is never completely attainable. No country, state, municipality or city is perfect, even when they subscribe to democratic values. Thus, the public administrator is hired, elected or appointed to assist the citizen and to discern politics from need.
For the citizen, democracy is where one goes to breathe. It is the refuge where all are equal. Many of the world’s citizens have known no other system of government, whereas other citizens can only imagine its structure. However, if poorly administered, democracy can drown in the anxiety of a tweet and fail to live up to the expectations of its citizens.
Democracy has long been the preferred system of governance for many countries. It looks different in some places and it is implemented along custom and cultural lines in other places. It has borrowed best practices from other systems and transformed those practices to fit democratic spaces. It is different and at the same time it is the same. It is as original as it is old. And, while democracy has survived wars, natural disasters, protests and pandemics, it still remains a timeless system of public management and representative self-government.
The Photo is the Afghanistan National Palace, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Lisa Saye, 2019
Author: Lisa Saye teaches Applied Research Methods for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul University. Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. On July 9, 2019, Dr. Saye delivered the Pre-Departure Orientation Keynote Address at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for Fulbrighters leaving for Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Saye earned her Master’s in Human Resource Management at Troy University and her Doctorate in Public Administration at The University of Alabama. She can be reached by email at [email protected].
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