The shortcomings of a system are best seen in times of crisis. We often hear that the system is good, but it is not working at the moment. I will say it right away, although it may sound like a self-evident tautology: a system that can be brought to a state of paralysis, for example by corruption - is not a good system!
In our case, it turns out that parliamentary liberal democracy can actually be reduced to periodically granting legitimacy to a group of people to do whatever they want with us. From mandate to mandate, we can protest as much as we want, but in essence every protest is an appeal to conscience, a hope that the powerful will have mercy and make some concessions. Those who are required to act conscientiously are hierarchically organized, which means that it is enough to corrupt the top of the hierarchies to disable the desired functioning of the entire system. Of course, conscientious people can be found in hierarchies, but as long as there are scoundrels above them, acting according to conscience carries risks, so conscientious individuals are neutralized or sanctioned, and the scoundrel hierarchies remain.
A few very different examples. Lawyers, judges and prosecutors are dissatisfied with the top of the judiciary and prosecution. Educators are dissatisfied with the Ministry of Education. Conscientious police officers are dissatisfied with the top of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Workers are dissatisfied with their bosses (that's already a good day). Or most generally, a huge number of citizens are deeply dissatisfied with the top of the state. What all these people have in common is that they are formally and legally completely powerless against those above them. On the other hand, illegal weapons can also be used against those at the bottom, and as long as the directive comes from the top, all of this can go without consequences!
Even the demand for elections, in the event of a legal change of government, depends on the conscience of the president of the republic, and if the president happens to be a scoundrel, an appeal to conscience can hardly bear fruit. Thanks to the president and the leaders of the regime for every "so what?!" with which they most directly prove the presented theses!
Let's be honest, our system offers a legal framework for ordinary people to try to influence those in power. With 100.000 signatures, citizens can request a referendum on "an issue within the competence of the National Assembly", and if the paperwork is correct, the Assembly should decide within six months whether to call a referendum. If the referendum does not go in favor of the authorities, and the deputies are corrupt, the outcome of the vote is known (after that, an appeal to the Administrative Court is possible, which can again, in the spirit of corruption, make a decision contrary to the law)... In addition, for 100.000 signatures it is necessary to hire an army of notaries and provide finances for the certification of signatures, which makes this possibility of direct democracy just a nice decoration in the Constitution - without that, one would think that citizens are completely helpless from election to election!
So much for the political system and institutional set-up. In short, corrupt hierarchical structures that the people periodically give their unqualified support to do whatever they want, with the only hope that our masters of life and death will behave conscientiously and heed our pleas if we rebel.
It is taboo, but let's not forget the economic system either. Capitalism is based on the idea that the competition of the rich who pursue their selfish interests will lead to prosperity for all of us. Capitalism increasingly widens the gap between the rich and the poor, and when a few powerful people manage wealth that the average person cannot even imagine, it opens up enormous potential for corruption - the heads of hierarchically structured institutions, party leaders, MPs, ministers, the media, all of which are much easier to buy and abuse when unimaginable financial power is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. If at the same time it is a state on the (semi)periphery of the global capitalist system, which is destined to extract wealth and employ cheap labor, survival easily becomes more important than face - in other words, the susceptibility to corruption is greater and it is easier to corrupt a large number of people at all levels of different hierarchies.
That is, in brief, a picture of the political and economic system. Of course, the bigger the scoundrels at the top of the hierarchy and the more corrupt henchmen there are, the greater the pressure needed to force the scoundrel hierarchy to make concessions and begin to collapse, which we have been witnessing in recent months.
Placing conscientious and uncorrupted people at the head of hierarchies would make systemic flaws less visible and certainly significantly improve the lives of all of us. That is probably the most that is possible at the moment. However, in a global and regional context that promotes bandits and corruption, it could only be a temporary solution. Giving real power to people at the bottom of the hierarchy to oppose those above them at any time - who, incidentally, in a legitimate power relationship should serve those below them - could be a good control mechanism that would prevent the arbitrariness of various power holders and allow democracy to be more than a periodic rounding of a lucky number! We must not forget about the need for truly systemic changes - because without weakening hierarchical relations, reducing social inequalities and giving more power to citizens, we will be vulnerable to some new villain, and democracy will essentially remain just a word with which professional politicians decorate their speeches.
Utopia? Self-organization of students, high school students, educators, and other citizens, equality and direct democracy, tears of joy throughout Serbia, and an eruption of humanity and solidarity - even now, as I write this, it seems unreal and utopian, and the students made it possible in just a few months! Unlike their parents who had leaders fighting against a corrupt authoritarian regime and who considered the victory of their leaders in the elections to be the end of the struggle, the students are aware that the change of regime is just the beginning. They have achieved so much in just a few months and have restored meaning to many words and symbols - in the years to come, it is not unrealistic to expect that equality, freedom, and democracy will also gain their true meaning!
The author is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Niš.
Bonus video:
