By Oweyegha-Oweyegha-Afunaduula
Ancient philosopher Socrates hated the word democracy. Socrates felt that democracy could only work well if individuals were educated, knowledgeable, and able to think critically. In the opinion of Socrates and Plato, democracy was subject to the influence of demagogues who preyed on the emotions and prejudices of the multitude. Democracy, as a vision, is founded on the conviction that power should reside in the hands of the people.
In ancient Athens, where Socrates lived, democracy was a relatively new vision, having developed just a few decades before his birth (Stefan, 2023). However, for Socrates, the promise of democracy was weakened by the reality of demagoguery. Demagoguery influences public opinion through charismatic leaders who engage in emotional appeals rather than a reason to acquire and keep power.
Others combine demagoguery with force, as did happen in 2017 and 2024 in the Parliament of Uganda when President Tibuhaburwa Museveni wanted Age Limit Bill and Coffee Bill respectively passed. Indeed, in the visions of Socrates and Plato, demagoguery constitutes a grave danger to the security and prosperity of a democratic society (Stefan, 2023).
Democracy, however, is the most successful political idea in the world. It allows ordinary people a decisive say in who governs a country and how they govern it. It is based on a system of government by all the citizens of a country, typically exercised through elected representatives. Democracy has endured in part due to its ability to accommodate change from below through expansion of voting rights, and greater protection of civil liberties.
By contrast, authoritarianism is, by its nature, centralized and limiting of free thought and expression. It can accomplish rapid change but only ordained from above. Unfortunately, in Uganda today, the longest-ruling President, declared during his campaigns for election as president in 1996 that a mere piece of paper 9the ballot pater0 cannot remove him from power.
Although his popularity has been diminishing, he has organised elections every 5 years and is due to organise another in 2026, which he and his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) must win at all costs, and have been winning. There is no election in which force has not been employed, people killed and maimed, and the Opposition has not claimed vote stuffing and vote rigging have taken centre stage.
The number of African countries that have adopted democratic systems of government has grown since decolonisation, the collapse of communism and the ending of a number of civil wars. However, even explicitly militaristic regimes claim to be democratic and to be democratising. Thinkers such as Amartya Sen argue democratic values are essential to successful development, pointing out no substantial famine has ever occurred in an independent and democratic country with a relatively free press
Interestingly, democracy and republic are frequently, and continue to be used to mean the same thing: a government in which the people vote for their leaders. democracy comes from the Greek roots meaning “rule by the people, Republic comes from the Latin roots meaning “public good” or “public affair,” used in ancient Rome to mean simply “state” or “country”. Uganda, even if it is a politico-military polity, is cast as democratic and a republic just as demagoguery and force are used to govern it amidst regular elections as the impression is created that in Uganda democracy is popular sovereignty – in Abraham Lincoln’s words, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’.
At its heart is the concept of the citizenry choosing a government through regular, free, and fair elections. However, this ignores the fact that one can organise regular, seemingly free and fair elections but in his or her favour, by erecting an electoral commission that is 100% pro-him or pro-her. It also ignores the existence of non-political democracy such as cultural democracy, social democracy, environmental democracy, ecological democracy, economic democracy, academic democracy, intellectual democracy and spiritual democracy.
Philosopher John Dewey said that the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. Many believe that democracy is the best form of government, but it needs some steps to inject real values of democracy in the world. However, it so narrowly conceived that its multidimensionality is often ignored and only the political dimension is stressed.
In this article, I want to consider the other dimensions of democracy namely cultural; democracy, social democracy, environmental democracy, ecological democracy, economic democracy, academic democracy, intellectual democracy and spiritual democracy. Therefore, if we talk of democratisation, it must be in all dimensions of democracy for it to be meaningful and effective.
Let me say something little about each of the different types of democracy I have mentioned, starting with political democracy before I commit myself to my topic of discussion.
Political Democracy
Political democracy is a type of democracy in which the supreme power is vested in the people and is exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation, usually involving periodic free elections. In essence, democracy is a form of government that is run by the elected representatives of the people. Putting it another way, political democracy, specifically, is achieved when certain political conditions are met. These conditions usually involve the adoption of a constitution and laws that give the people supreme power. In a political democracy, the people are the ultimate source of political power (Testbook, 2023).
Cultural Democracy
Cultural democracy is a radical approach to culture and the arts that involves everyone in deciding what culture is, who makes it, and who experiences it. It’s based on the idea that everyone has rights and is creative, gifted, and potentially powerful. It emphasizes that culture is a public interest and that people should be engaged in affecting and sustaining it.
However, the meaning and importance of cultural democracy can vary depending on the political and economic context. When we talk of cultural democratisation, we mean that art and culture should be accessible to everyone and that people should be actively involved in deciding what culture is and how it’s experienced. It’s based on the idea that art should be created by, for, and with everyone, protecting and promoting cultural diversity, and the right to culture for everyone in our society and around the world; encouraging active participation in community cultural life; enabling people to participate in policy decisions that affect the quality of our cultural lives; and assuring fair and equitable access to cultural resources and support
Social Democracy
Social democracy is a democracy that emphasizes socioeconomic equality and the creation of certain social rights, such as education, health care, and extensive social services. It entails freedom, solidarity and justice for all. cannot really be described as a political philosophy: there is no systematic statement or great text that can be pointed to as a definitive account of social democratic ideals. In practical politics, however, social democratic ideas have been very influential, guiding the policies of most Western states in the post-war world.
Environmental Democracy and Ecological Democracy
Concepts of ecological and environmental democracy seek to reconcile two normative ideals: ensuring environmental sustainability while safeguarding democracy. These ideals are frequently conceived as being in conflict, as democracy is perceived as too slow and cumbersome to deliver the urgent large-scale collective action needed to tackle environmental problems (Pickering, et.al., 2020)
- Environmental Democracy
Environmental democracy is the idea that the public should be involved in environmental decision-making. The concept was formed after the Chernobyl disaster and the 1992 Rio Summit for the Earth. In response, governments have: Strengthened laws on the right to information, created pollutant registers, implemented environmental impact assessments, and established other public oversight processes. It has three pillars: transparency, participation and justice.
- Ecological Democracy
The concept of ecological democracy has been employed to illustrate how rapid ecological and environmental change poses significant problems for existing democratic structures. If the term is to prove useful, however, it must be better conceptualized and empirically tested. According to Professor John Dryzek ( ) “Ecological Democracy is a landmark in ecological philosophy, offering both a profound argument about how to care democratically for all existence and an indispensable critical guide to the history of green political thought. Odin Lysaker clarifies what is at stake as he re-thinks what a truly ecocentric democracy should entail”.
Economic Democracy
The current economic system has concentrated power in the hands of the few and created record inequality. A new paradigm must be created. Economic democracy is a system where people share ownership and decision-making over the power and resources in their communities. It is sometimes called a democratic economy. It is actually is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift ownership and decision-making power from corporate shareholders and corporate managers (such as a board of directors) to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, consumers, suppliers, communities and the broader public
Rather than profit and pure self-interest, it is grounded in values of solidarity, cooperation, democracy, and sustainability. Where economic democracy exists at substantial scales in urban regions, we see significantly reduced inequality and greater well-being for all, especially working people. Economic democracy reduces inequality and increases the shared wealth we have in our communities, not just creating huge amounts of wealth for small numbers of people. It does not just mean creating more programs or more access or “input” and participation. It means real partnership and shared power, control, and benefit for everyday people in the things that matter in our lives (Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative, 2022).
Worker cooperatives, where workers own and democratically run the company with one worker, one vote, and majority employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are two examples of economic democracy, because they apply principles of democratic practice to one part of the economy: the workplace or the firm. But that’s not all economic democracy means. Economic democracy can also extend to housing, land, food, education, and nearly every part of the economy and our lives. Additionally, employee stock option plans (ESOPs), the most common form of employee ownership in the US, typically provide ownership but not decision-making control. Without collective governance, ESOPs are just profit-sharing, and do not meet our criteria for economic democracy (Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative, BCDI, 2022).
BCDI is a multi-stakeholder community economic development initiative that seeks to build community wealth among low- and middle-income residents of the Bronx by enlarging the scope of local economic actors and policy. BCDI’s vision is for entrepreneurialism in which the local businesses are embedded in networks that support community organizing and what they call economic democracy. In their pursuit of organizing a platform of economic democracy for the Bronx, BCDI shows that it may indeed be possible to construct local political-economic institutions that make use of markets that are accountable to, and operate in the service of, more just cities (Evan Casper-Futterman and James DeFilippis (2017)..
Academic Democracy
There is growing interest in the state of academic freedom worldwide. A 1997 UNESCO document defines it as the right of scholars to teach, discuss, research, publish, express opinions about systems and participate in academic bodies. Academic freedom is a cornerstone of education and knowledge. Academic Democracy may be viewed as Total Academic Democracy, a comprehensive initiative aimed at promoting inclusive governance within academia, facilitating representation from all educational institutions globally to foster equitable decision-making processes and enhance collaboration across diverse academic communities. Its core principles are inclusivity, representativeness, equitable decision-making, and collaboration. Collaboration is better achieved through the alternative knowledge production systems of interdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and extradisciplinarity (or non-disciplinarity). The Potential benefits are more informed decision-making, increased interaction and engagement, enhanced innovation, and improved access and equity.
Intellectual Democracy
We need to strive for an intellectual democracy. And this does not mean that just an elected few should only ever vote. But those who are today intellectually able to think about issues rationally and deeply, have a duty to make sure to teach this skill to all their fellow countrymen. As Socrates stated, no one chooses evil; we just failed to achieve good by ignorance or lack of knowledge as to how to obtain it (Federico Renzo Grayeb, 2016).
Educational Democracy
Educational democracy, or democratic education, is a formal education system that gives students a say in their learning and the governance of their school. It’s based on the belief that children are best able to determine what’s good for them, and that schools should provide a democratic structure to help them discover their interests. Educational democracy cannot be achieved through the disciplinary strategy of knowledge production but through the alternative strategies of interdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and extradisciplinarity (or non-disciplinarity), These allow for greater interaction between students and between students and their teachers in such a way that all are both students and teachers. Besides, these strategies produce graduates of the education system who are democratic, value others and teamwork, do not regard themselves as superior to others, respect the views of others, think critically and reason better and are future-ready professionals. Besides, the community is fully involved in the educational processes. Whose benefits feed directly into the community. I must add that the focus and value of educational democracy is problem-solving.
Thus, the purpose of democratic education is to provide students with some ownership over their own education so they might be more active and responsible members of their community. In general, a Democratic Education involves increasing student choice in school (William Spaulding, 2023).
Agricultural Democracy and Agrarian Democracy
Agricultural democracy can refer to a number of concepts related to democracy and agriculture, including: Land use planning: a way to broaden democracy in agriculture; Regenerative agriculture: a bottom-up approach that can restore social democracy, farming, and individual sovereignty; and Agricultural-based economic development: a way to bridge the gap between market-oriented development and other development goals, such as poverty reduction, gender justice, and climate change adaptation (e.g., Thompson, 2017).
Seed Democracy
Seed democracy refers to seed dormancy, which is an evolutionary adaptation that prevents seeds from germinating in conditions that would likely lead to low seedling survival. Seed democracy implies respecting socioculturally sensitive and valuable seeds that have stood the test of time in different biocultural landscapes. It means the government should protect the people and their communities from biotechnologically deformed seeds (i.e., genetically modified seeds and/or organisms)..
Scientific Democracy
Scientific democracy is the idea that science and democracy are linked and that both can benefit from each other. Within a university setting it means seeing and pursuing science as one with three interlinked dimensions – natural science, humanities (or arts) and social science, each dimension cross-fertilises the others.
As Greta Thunberg observed, Science and democracy are strongly interlinked – as they are both built on freedom of speech, independence, facts and transparency. If you don’t respect democracy then you probably won’t respect science. And if you don’t respect science, you will probably not respect democracy. If you are an authoritarian ruler, you will most likely pretend to love both and simply deploy the two essentials that require freedom of speech, independent thought, facts and transparency to be effective in democratic governance to serve your selfish interests rather than the country you govern. You will actually divorce science from democracy and make your governance sterile and useless to the people you govern.
Health Democracy.
Health Democracy implies commitment oof the rulers in charge of the health of the citizens and their country to equity, justice and human rights in the Health Sector. It implies health for all in a clean, healthy and clean environment. Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2024) found a cross-country correlation between democracy and health. Indeed, there are causal impacts of democratisation on health outcomes. Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2024) cites Thomas Fujiwara suggesting that public service delivery was the key channel through which democracy affected health outcomes in Brazil. On the other hand, democracy often goes together with improved governance, including more control of corruption and better administrative effectiveness and state capacity (to deliver quality services efficiently and on time. The quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies are critical in building health democracy.
Spiritual Democracy
The spiritual life of man is not and can never be the life of religious sects nor of other wrongfully called spiritual movements. The true spiritual life begins within the individual when he perceives the importance of it, and begins to realize what spiritual values are. Therefore, in order for man to emerge from his present state of chaos, he must experience a revolution of a new type, one that will have neither a political nor an economic character. We may call it the individual self-revolution.
There is nothing that can better transform man from his materialistic conception of existence to a spiritual awareness of life than such individual revolution from within. The prophets, the mystics, the great poets, and other unusual souls are among those who have had glimpses and signs of a higher social order beyond civilization. They created a great deal of spiritual literature that is testimony of the reality of man’s spiritual nature. But there is a step further to go. Now, we need individuals with spiritual heroism who will use this literature as a blueprint and apply themselves diligently to work it out as a reality in life. (Fredrick Kettner, 1954).
Therefore, when we insist on using the concepts of liberation and democratisation in the governance of Uganda, we must recognise the existence and importance of the different types of democracy I have listed, articulated and clarified in this article. Otherwise, talk of liberation and democratisation will be just empty talk at a very high cost to the taxpayer.
We should be able to show to what extent we have liberated, democratised, developed and transformed our people and country in the different dimensions of democratic transition and change. If not, we shall go on wasting time, energy and money, and remain in a vicious circle of poverty, underdevelopment, decay and collapse in a very difficult 21st Century and beyond. Our country will continue to be referred to as misgoverned, collapsed or failed.
Lastly, for liberalisation to be meaningful and effective, it should not be limited to economics but should be extended to politics as well because that is where all the important decisions that may or may not be in service of the different types of democracy, will be made. If politics is liberalised alternative leaders and the people will participate in decision-making without fear or favour. They will become more and more politically developed and less and less politically illiterate. They will be useful in building the different types of democracy I have introduced in this article.
For God and My Country.
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