With the elections over, it might be time to reflect on what Sir Keir Starmer means by ‘rot’ in the ‘foundations of this country’. What foundations are those? Political?
In the democracy (‘citizen-power’) invented by the Greeks, men over the age of 18 meeting in assembly took all decisions that our politicians take today and, aged over 30, all decisions in the courts. It lasted for 180 years (508-322 bc), but did not survive, being characterised as ‘the rule of the poor, looting the rich’. The Romans invented republicanism (‘the people’s property’). The Senate, drawn from the elites, both made the laws and occupied the various official positions – legal, financial, military etc. – of government. But it was citizen assemblies that passed the laws and elected the officers of state. On the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, monarchies became the order of the day, but few that survive have real power.
As for ‘democracy’, the word does not appear in the American constitution. Rousseau liked the idea of politically active citizens but thought that only gods could make democracy work. Still, men like George Grote and John Stuart Mill (19th C) made the case for citizen liberty and participation, and versions of a quasi-democratic republican system have become the standard model for most western governments.
Many other social and religious influences have shaped our modern democracy, but one could argue that the following features – in principle at least – emerged from classical origins: all citizens possess liberty; have the right to rule themselves; or to transfer that rule, with checks and balances, to those they elect in their place; and that the duty of politicians is to serve, not their own interests, but those of the people who have elected them.
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