Protest and democracy: mutually incompatible?

The other day I read an absolutely astounding remark at the Iberian Notes blog:

"They're going to have a demonstration this afternoon on Calle Escorial, bang pots and pans, and cut off the traffic. I don't like demos because there isn't much point in holding public protests in a democracy. "

I've been debating for some time how best to respond to this. Usually, I correct factual errors on IN in the comments section of the blog but I think this warrants a post of its own.

OK so the assertion is fairly simple: in a democracy, there's not much point in holding public protests. The reasoning behind the assertion is harder to see but I reckon that John was  suggesting that - given that one can de-elect a government which carries out unpopular legislation or policy - public protests are a waste of time.

Of course, his assertion tells of a deep misunderstanding (perhaps even dislike) of what democracy actually means.  Public protest is one of the cornerstones of healthy democratic government, as a means whereby the public may express its dislike (or even approval) for a single piece of government policy. Indeed, the absence of public protest is the very hallmark of an unhealthy democracy: it's evidence of a detached or cowed populace, of a disconnection between people and events.

Elections, when they occur, are an excellent opportunity for the public to express their judgement of the ruling government, based on their record during that term of government.  But few would agree that they cast their votes based on one policy alone. An exception (a true vote of protest) was the result of the 2003 general election in Spain, when voters kicked the PP out of office after they committed the country to an unpopular war. There were lots of other good reasons to kick the PP out (nepotism, stealing of state funds to pay for Aznar's daughter's marriage, the party's ministers being a mixture of the nasty and the bizarre, etc) but it seems that the war was the prime motivator for many voters. The protest vote came weeks after a public protest involving millions of people who opposed the war, which was totally ignored by the PP. He who dismisses the importance of protest: beware!

Anyone who opposes non-violent public protest is really opposing freedom of expression and the true spirit of democracy.

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August 13, 2007 | Filed Under Politics, Spain 

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