Democracy Stories

There are two unsettling scenes, one fictional and one true, which often come to my mind when discussing politics with India’s educated elite. They lead me to know particular conclusions, but I thought they might be worth sharing.

The first scene can be found in Kazuo Shiguro’s excellent novel “The Remains of the Day.” I cannot remember the exact details, but it plays out something like the following:

In the mid 1930s, three British aristocrats are sitting in the smoking room of a manor. They are discussing global politics and specifically Britain’s strategy in response to the rise of the Germans. The men decide that this in extremely complicated issue that very few of Britain’s citizens understand. This leads the men to begin arguing over the virtues of democracy, and particularly the merits of voting rights for the poor and uneducated masses. To prove the point that the masses are certainly not qualified to vote, one of the men decides to call in manor’s butler. The butler enters the room and the men quiz the butler on his views of how Britain should approach forging alliances in the Balkans (an esoteric question they were sure he would not be able to answer). The butler modestly suggests that he of course does not feel entitled to an opinion on the matter. The aristocrat who called him in feels vindicated, and declares that it is ridiculous to suggest that ignorant people like the butler should have any say in Britain’s foreign policy and the way in which the country is governed.

The second scene took place about a month in front of my house, which is located in a large town in western Orissa. In this case, I do believe I accurately remember the details:

It was the evening of the municipal elections in the town, and I had just returned from work. My landlord, a manager at a local industrial plant and a wonderfully kind and liberal minded man, came out onto the road in front of the house and I asked him about his day. He told me that in response to recent flooding in Orissa, he had spent much of his time helping drain water from a local slum. I then asked whether had voted. He responded that he was busy and that he did not think voting was of much value as all the candidates were the same and even if they were good, they were at the mercy of corrupt parties. We had an extended conversation in which I played devils advocate and brought up the different reasons voting might have been worthwhile. He shot down each reason with ease. At the end of the conversation, my landlord’s maid came outside on her way home. I asked him whether his maid had voted. He responded that of course she had. I was a bit surprised at the certainty of this. My landlord saw this on my face and explained, “voting is for poor people.”

For some more quantitative info on voting and democracy checkout this paper on the rationality of voting that fellow blogger Emmerich Davies pointed out to me.

*In full disclosure, though I am an American citizen, I will not be voting in tomorrow’s election simply from laziness.