Author, Yuval Noah Harari, contrasts the differences between democracies and dictatorships in terms of information networks in his book, ‘Nexus’. While a dictatorship is about one central information network dictating everything, a democracy is an ongoing conversation between diverse information nodes. The unrestricted free exchange of ideas is central to democracy as is everyone being treated as equals. If we accept that no such thing as a perfect democracy exists, but rather there is a spectrum between this ideal on one end and totalitarianism on the other, then it might be helpful to posit whether Ireland is on the healthier end of this scale compared to the United Kingdom.
Here are five areas where I’d make a clear argument that Irish democracy lies on the more desirable side of this spectrum, whereas the UK veers towards totalitarianism:
Without a free exchange of ideas, where ideally the best argued ideas percolate to the top, we don’t have a serious democracy. Precisely for this reason, free speech is a central pillar of democracy. At present, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are falling short in this respect. However, the UK Government is currently arresting over 12,000 people per year for speech they disagree with. Meanwhile, the hate speech bill introduced by Helen McEntee provided an ominous threat to this most fundamental of rights. We can never become complacent in protecting this civil liberty for both ourselves and for people we may disagree with. Yet, the number of arrests for ‘speech offenses’ in UK clearly demonstrates that they currently have a far greater intolerance of speech that it does not like.
The second key difference I would look at is the voting systems used in each jurisdiction’s general election. In the United Kingdom, they use a First-Past-The-Post system. In practice, this means the country is divided into 650 constituencies where the candidate with the highest number of votes in each one is elected. To illustrate the undemocratic nature of this system, Labour’s Terry Jermy was elected with 26.7% of the vote in the constituency of South-West Norfolk and the remaining 73.3% of votes effectively went to waste. In other words, the voices of over seventy percent of voters in that constituency were effectively ignored. On a British national level, Labour received 63.2% of the total number of seats in Government with 33.7% of the vote in last year’s UK General Election. In the Republic of Ireland, a proportional representation system is used which reduces the amount of ‘wasted votes’ and increases the number of voices heard at the ballot box. It also doesn’t tend to produce such a disparity in percentage of votes versus percentage of seats. Fianna Fáil received 27.6% of the seats in last year’s Irish general election with 21.9% of the vote. This is a more accurate representation of the electorates vote in Government whilst also accommodating smaller parties with transferred votes opposed to them effectively being rendered meaningless in the UK’s system.
Thirdly, a form of direct democracy is referenda where the electorate are asked a question directly on a single issue. In the UK, referenda are rare and at a UK-wide level there’s only been a mere total of three. By contrast, the Republic of Ireland has held over 40 since 1937. In short, the Irish people are asked for their views directly on a much more frequent basis.
A fourth key difference lies between the Upper House of the Irish Government (Seanad Éireann) and its counterpart in the UK (Houses of Lords). In the latter, the British public effectively has no say over who becomes a Lord as they do not have a direct vote. By contrast, Seanad Éireann elect 49 of their 60 senators.
Fifth and finally, albeit I might be guilty of some possible oversights for other democratic disparities, the head of state (President) in Ireland is elected whereas the United Kingdom maintains a Monarch. Whilst these respective roles might often be seen as being primarily ambassadorial and the Monarch hasn’t directly influenced law since 1708(Queen Anne’s refusal to give Royal Assent), what kind of democracy has an unelected head of state? The influence of the Royal Family is still often considerable, and one need only to look at the role of the unelected Louis Mountbatten during the disastrous partition of India where even conservative estimates reckon close to a million people died.
In addition to these five key differences, the weight of the vote for Northerners would be far greater in a United Ireland. At present, those in the occupied part of Ireland represent 2.8% of the UK electorate but could be around 27% of an all-island one. A further benefit is that we could simultaneously dilute the power of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in a New Ireland – assuming negligible support in the North – which will make our politics less stale. I would also posit that while the sectarian divide will likely continue to linger in the event of Irish Unity, an end to power-sharing combined with the constitutional question finally being put to bed means some of the structural reinforcements of sectarian politics have been removed.
None of this is to say that Irish democracy is perfect and I don’t feel the current Government accurately represents the views of the public on issues such as immigration and housing. The prospect of Irish Unity provides no guarantee that we’ll be a strong democracy either, which in our complacency we sometimes overlook just how historically rare and fragile such societies are. In the words of slave abolitionist, Wendell Phillips, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” Nonetheless, the democratic dividend of Irish Unity will undoubtedly be an improvement for those in the North and with an energised electorate in a United Nation we can grasp something extremely precious.
In order for a Border Poll to successfully deliver a United Ireland we need to build as broad a church as possible. That means uniting Liberals, Conservatives, Left, Right and reaching the ‘constitutionally agnostic’ on this single issue. Our political disagreements outside the constitutional question are largely irrelevant if we have an ineffective democratic structure for having our voices heard. United Ireland – if seized properly with democratic ethos at its core – can provide a much superior form of Government where Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters each have a meaningful say.
Author, Yuval Noah Harari, contrasts the differences between democracies and dictatorships in terms of information networks in his book, ‘Nexus’. While a dictatorship is about one central information network dictating everything, a democracy is an ongoing conversation between diverse information nodes. The unrestricted free exchange of ideas is central to democracy as is everyone being treated as equals. If we accept that no such thing as a perfect democracy exists, but rather there is a spectrum between this ideal on one end and totalitarianism on the other, then it might be helpful to posit whether Ireland is on the healthier end of this scale compared to the United Kingdom.
Here are five areas where I’d make a clear argument that Irish democracy lies on the more desirable side of this spectrum, whereas the UK veers towards totalitarianism:
Without a free exchange of ideas, where ideally the best argued ideas percolate to the top, we don’t have a serious democracy. Precisely for this reason, free speech is a central pillar of democracy. At present, both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are falling short in this respect. However, the UK Government is currently arresting over 12,000 people per year for speech they disagree with. Meanwhile, the hate speech bill introduced by Helen McEntee provided an ominous threat to this most fundamental of rights. We can never become complacent in protecting this civil liberty for both ourselves and for people we may disagree with. Yet, the number of arrests for ‘speech offenses’ in UK clearly demonstrates that they currently have a far greater intolerance of speech that it does not like.
The second key difference I would look at is the voting systems used in each jurisdiction’s general election. In the United Kingdom, they use a First-Past-The-Post system. In practice, this means the country is divided into 650 constituencies where the candidate with the highest number of votes in each one is elected. To illustrate the undemocratic nature of this system, Labour’s Terry Jermy was elected with 26.7% of the vote in the constituency of South-West Norfolk and the remaining 73.3% of votes effectively went to waste. In other words, the voices of over seventy percent of voters in that constituency were effectively ignored. On a British national level, Labour received 63.2% of the total number of seats in Government with 33.7% of the vote in last year’s UK General Election. In the Republic of Ireland, a proportional representation system is used which reduces the amount of ‘wasted votes’ and increases the number of voices heard at the ballot box. It also doesn’t tend to produce such a disparity in percentage of votes versus percentage of seats. Fianna Fáil received 27.6% of the seats in last year’s Irish general election with 21.9% of the vote. This is a more accurate representation of the electorates vote in Government whilst also accommodating smaller parties with transferred votes opposed to them effectively being rendered meaningless in the UK’s system.
Thirdly, a form of direct democracy is referenda where the electorate are asked a question directly on a single issue. In the UK, referenda are rare and at a UK-wide level there’s only been a mere total of three. By contrast, the Republic of Ireland has held over 40 since 1937. In short, the Irish people are asked for their views directly on a much more frequent basis.
A fourth key difference lies between the Upper House of the Irish Government (Seanad Éireann) and its counterpart in the UK (Houses of Lords). In the latter, the British public effectively has no say over who becomes a Lord as they do not have a direct vote. By contrast, Seanad Éireann elect 49 of their 60 senators.
Fifth and finally, albeit I might be guilty of some possible oversights for other democratic disparities, the head of state (President) in Ireland is elected whereas the United Kingdom maintains a Monarch. Whilst these respective roles might often be seen as being primarily ambassadorial and the Monarch hasn’t directly influenced law since 1708(Queen Anne’s refusal to give Royal Assent), what kind of democracy has an unelected head of state? The influence of the Royal Family is still often considerable, and one need only to look at the role of the unelected Louis Mountbatten during the disastrous partition of India where even conservative estimates reckon close to a million people died.
In addition to these five key differences, the weight of the vote for Northerners would be far greater in a United Ireland. At present, those in the occupied part of Ireland represent 2.8% of the UK electorate but could be around 27% of an all-island one. A further benefit is that we could simultaneously dilute the power of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in a New Ireland – assuming negligible support in the North – which will make our politics less stale. I would also posit that while the sectarian divide will likely continue to linger in the event of Irish Unity, an end to power-sharing combined with the constitutional question finally being put to bed means some of the structural reinforcements of sectarian politics have been removed.
None of this is to say that Irish democracy is perfect and I don’t feel the current Government accurately represents the views of the public on issues such as immigration and housing. The prospect of Irish Unity provides no guarantee that we’ll be a strong democracy either, which in our complacency we sometimes overlook just how historically rare and fragile such societies are. In the words of slave abolitionist, Wendell Phillips, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” Nonetheless, the democratic dividend of Irish Unity will undoubtedly be an improvement for those in the North and with an energised electorate in a United Nation we can grasp something extremely precious.
In order for a Border Poll to successfully deliver a United Ireland we need to build as broad a church as possible. That means uniting Liberals, Conservatives, Left, Right and reaching the ‘constitutionally agnostic’ on this single issue. Our political disagreements outside the constitutional question are largely irrelevant if we have an ineffective democratic structure for having our voices heard. United Ireland – if seized properly with democratic ethos at its core – can provide a much superior form of Government where Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters each have a meaningful say.