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What the electorate gives, the electorate can take away, says Nicholas Dobson, so governments must be wary of becoming intoxicated by power. Most people will regard democracy as a good thing. But what does the term actually mean in practice? The 19th century US president Abraham Lincoln's statement: ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people' is undoubtedly a noble sentiment. But with so many different kinds of people and interests, will it ever be possible to please all the people all the time? And, if it's the view of the majority that this should prevail, then where does that leave minorities? Then, of course, there's the library-loads of different models of democracy and ideas about what it means – or should mean. The former Soviet Union certainly considered itself a democracy. Maybe, Jim, but not as we know it. For the Marxist/Leninist people's republic model worked on the basis that an authoritarian state knew best, and governed with an iron fist, purportedly on behalf of the majority. But history teaches that while [former leader of the USSR] Joseph Stalin and his comrades weren't too big on human rights, they were, nevertheless, field leaders in corruption and murder. So in Britain, the term tends to suggest liberal democratic models, ie, where government does not wield absolute and arbitrary power, where elections are free and fair, and civil liberties are safeguarded. But what say do any of us have over how our country and, indeed, our local area is governed? In our representative democracy, we hand over power to elected politicians to manage the business on our behalf. But as Lord Hailsham argued in his 1976 Dimbleby Lecture, once a government gets its hands on power, it can effectively become a dictatorship. So what's the answer? To get back to direct democracy basics? A ‘Britain's Got Democracy' electronic vote on every major issue? Would that yield a healthy body politic? The thought may give pause. For while the public are undoubtedly the nature and source of modern democratic power, they are not always well-informed – or, indeed, reasonable. For mass instincts can sometimes move in disturbing ways. Adolf Hitler was, after all, electorally popular and achieved power in a democratic context before using existing emergency measures to establish his dictatorship. And while the public should certainly not be regarded as a mob, Victorian art critic and social thinker, John Ruskin may have had a point when he observed that: ‘You can talk a mob into anything. Its feelings may be – usually are – on the whole, generous and right. But it has no foundation for them, no hold of them. ‘You may tease or tickle it into any, at your pleasure. It thinks by infection, for the most part, catching an opinion like a cold, and there is nothing so little that it will not roar itself wild about, when the fit is on – nothing so great but it will forget in an hour, when the fit is past.' And, of course, the public are highly heterogeneous. So agencies of governance do need to exercise both leadership and decisiveness. However, it is vital that this is seen to be for the public good. It should also be and be seen to be exercised in a context of trust, public accountability and openness. Tony Blair, as newly-elected prime minister told his MPs in 1997 that they were not there to enjoy ‘the trappings of power', but to uphold the highest standards. This certainly played well in the country at the time, but many subsequent events were to severely undermine public trust in his administration. While at local level, councillors have a democratic mandate, this is often fairly slender in practice, given weak voter turnout in recent times. For instance, although there is currently some widespread political disenchantment, the 2009 local elections, nevertheless, saw a turnout of only around 34%. So politicians do need to find realistic and meaningful ways of connecting with and being informed by the public, while retaining the right to lead and govern. Hazel Blears' White Paper – and its subsequent legislative embodiments – while coming across as somewhat breathless, at least seemed to grasp the need for proper connection between governors and governed. But when the red ‘potential abuse of power' warning light starts to flicker on the council dashboard, it often falls to the monitoring officer to speak truth to power. For the key is trust. And once that disappears it is almost impossible to get it back. This is a stern lesson for all those seeking to exercise public authority at any level. But it is one that is all too easy to forget by those who have allowed themselves to get drunk on the intoxicant of power. Nicholas Dobson is a local government lawyer

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WHITEHALL

The intoxicant of power

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