The Ethos of Constitutional Democracy:
Not For Export in the Arab World
Prof. Paul Eidelberg.
In June 2002, President Bush announced a fundamental change in US Mideast foreign policy. Instead of maintaining the status quo or stability, which would perpetuate Arab autocracies, the US would promote democracy or regime change in the Arab world.
It seems that Mr. Bush or his advisors had a superficial view of the prerequisites of democracy—as if little more was needed than democratic elections and a constitution delineating the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Lacking was an understanding of the ethos required for a constitutional democracy—an ethos utterly foreign to the Arab world.
I discuss this ethos in my booklet “The Myth of Israeli Democracy.” In theory, constitutional democracy, as conceived in 18th century America, presupposes a fairly well educated community whose structure of government is rooted in ethical principles. Americans may be fairly well educated today, but dominating their education is moral relativism, a doctrine that negates the ethical principles of constitutional democracy.
The source of those ethical principles is none other than the Bible of Israel. 18th century educators understood this. Harvard president Samuel Langdon and Yale president Ezra Stiles regarded the American Constitution as based on the Ten Commandments. Today, displaying the Ten Commandments in a public place is deemed unconstitutional!
America has come a long way from the religious and aristocratic values that influenced democracy at its birth in the 18th century. Those values are disappearing from the practice of constitutional democracy, which has become increasingly value-free or ethically neutral.
America’s Founding Fathers understood that constitutional democracy requires a community whose values transcend such ethically neutral principles as universal suffrage and majority rule. In a constitutional democracy, the authority of the majority is limited by legal and institutional means to protect the rights of individuals and minorities and thus promote justice and fairness.
Although based on popular sovereignty, constitutional democracy implies recognition on part of the people that there is a need to protect themselves from their own impulses. Whether written or unwritten, a constitution is a check on arbitrary human will. It regulates popular voting, terms of office, divisions of power, and how constitutional rules can be changed only by rational deliberation rather than by the whim of the people or their representatives.
To ensure careful deliberation, an extraordinary majority is required for amending a constitution. This requirement has an undemocratic implication. It places in question the idea that a numerically superior portion of a people is entitled to greater influence over public decisions than a numerically inferior one—at least on constitutional issues, which, after all, may affect a people’s way of life or national identity.
Constitutional democracy places checks on the tendency of groups and individuals to impose their own ideas of what is politically desirable on others. Constitutionalism is therefore an expression of man’s capacity for self-restraint, his concern for justice and the common good.
Not that constitutionalism ignores the egotistical side of human nature. It recognizes politics as an area of group conflict and self-aggrandizement. But constitutional democracy attempts to purge politics of the egotism that would crush everything in its way.
First, it limits the powers of government to prevent majority as well as minority tyranny. As may be seen in the American Constitution, This is does by separating the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government while enabling each branch of government to check the powers of other branches.
The principle of institutional checks and balances translates the self-restraint taught in the family to the public domain. What began as family morality metamorphoses into public morality. The fundamental values of constitutional democracy reflect a paramount concern with human dignity and the worth of each individual. Individual rights to life, liberty, and property are protected by law. Constitutional democracy includes among its highest purposes the protection of freedom of conscience and freedom of expression. These freedoms have value both for the healthy functioning of constitutional democracy and for the full development of the human personality.
In constitutional democracy, citizens are free not only to debate the actions and policies of their elected officials but also to express their thoughts about politics, art, religion or any other topic without fear of recrimination. Citizens have access to unbiased information from independent publishers, radio, television, and other means of communication. There is an established process to detect and correct errors in procedures used in the gathering of information and the making of governmental decisions.
Constitutional democracies recognize and protect the integrity of a private and social realm comprised of family, personal, religious, and other associations and activities. This area of uncoerced human association—absent in Arab culture—is the basis of a civil society free from unjust and unreasonable intrusions by government.
Individuals have the right to acquire and own property. They are free to establish private businesses free from unreasonable government regulation. The political system protects and promotes equality of political, economic, and social opportunity, a precondition of which is reduction of gross disparities of wealth.
Women have the same political, economic, and legal protections as those accorded to men. All persons are entitled to the equal protection of the law. They are free from discrimination based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, class or socio-economic status. (All this, of course, is quite foreign to Islam.)
In constitutional democracies, all persons are entitled to due process of law. Law-enforcement agencies are required to use procedures that protect the rights of those suspected of crimes. Individuals are free from arbitrary arrest and detention. They are secure in their homes and property from arbitrary search and seizure. Arrested individuals are informed of their rights and brought promptly before a judge to be informed of charges against them. Individuals have the right to have a court or other impartial body determine the legality of their arrest and detention. The accused have the right to refrain from testifying against themselves. They have the right to counsel for assistance in their defense. Government is required to provide counsel for those who cannot pay for legal assistance. This is the ethos of constitutional democracy.
Clearly, constitutional democracy presupposes a highly civilized people, an ethical community in which justice dwells with fairness and compassion. Not all peoples have the moral and intellectual qualifications required for constitutional democracy. The success of constitutional democracy requires a fairly well educated people. They must have the capacity (a) to think critically about information and arguments on public affairs; (b) to make thoughtful judgments about government policies; (c) to influence policies by clearly articulating interests and making them known to policy makers.
For constitutional democracy to flourish, its people must posses certain traits of character.
(1) Civility, which means treating others with respect as individuals inherently worthy of consideration regardless of their positions on political issues.
(2) Individual responsibility, which means that citizens understand the importance for themselves and for society of fulfilling their personal responsibilities. These responsibilities include taking care of one’s self, supporting one’s family, friends, and community.
(3) Self-discipline, which means freely adhering to the fundamental values and principles of constitutional democracy without requiring the imposition of external authority.
(4) Compromise, which means that citizens sometimes must make accommodations or concessions in the political process. Compromise may be appropriate when the alternative is political stalemate, or, in extreme cases, violence.
(5) Patience and Persistence: citizens must understand that developing or changing public policy usually requires time and persistent effort. Failure to immediately attain goals appropriate to constitutional democracy should not lead citizens to abandon their efforts or resort to violence.
Not all peoples have the ethos required for constitutional democracy. It would take generations for constitutional democracy to develop in the Muslim world—unless the ethos of Islam were devastated, something not in the purview of multicultural democracies.
____________________
*Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, November 12, 2007.
