What Does Real Democracy Look Like?

Why Hierarchy is the Root of All Evil, and How We Can Dismantle It

What plagues the world today? War, ecological ruin, a sick society both physically and mentally, violence, corruption, greed… the list could go on and on. Fundamentally, these plagues have their foundation in hierarchies. Let’s chat about why, and how we can dismantle these hierarchies.

Granted, this is taking on a lot for one article. This is just meant as an introduction to my thoughts on the topic. They are thoughts I have embraced, but many people have contributed to their formation. They have my gratitude.

Why Hierarchy Is The Root of All Evil

Hierarchy is defined as a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to importance, status or authority.

Think of the word patriarchy (note “archy” suffix). This is defined as a system where men are ranked as more important or authoritative than women. This has led to men having favor in positions of power, wealth, property and to women being subjected to rape, violence, exploitation, lower pay, and without reproductive autonomy. 

We often call the Earth our Mother. Consider Earth to be in the same status as women under patriarchy. She is routinely raped, exploited, assaulted and striped of autonomy.

In theory we live in a democracy, which means “rule by the many.” We all know the truth is the system is actually more of an oligarchy (there’s that archy suffix again), which simply means rule by a few.

The legal system in the United States was crafted by these few, as James Madison called them, the opulent minority. The legal system was designed to protect them.

“Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” 

James Madison, Term of the Senate, [26 June] 1787

This is why there is a senate, meant to represent not a democratic majority, but landholders. 

Today in the United States there are three people who hold as much wealth as the entire bottom half of the people. A capitalist property ownership economic system is hierarchical in nature. Those without ownership become subjected to the whims of those who have. It becomes especially egregious when those who own most of everything have as much power as they do within this legal system.

Once again, when it comes to the Earth, the economic interests of the opulent are protected not only over ecosystems and their plant and animal communities, but other humans as well. When it comes to the air we breath, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the materials our dwellings are built with, it is the interests of the wealthy that matter, not people or other life.

The wars that have been fought, the violence committed and the injustices that prevail all have their root in these hierarchies. They are all acts by those with power wrangling to maintain or grow their control of power, resources and property.

The population at large have unwittingly gone alone with this as we’ve been led to believe we live in a free and fair democratic system. We get to vote, right? LOL, well yes. But that’s not how decisions are really made. Politicians can only win elections after taking enormous donations from those opulent folks. The opulent also own the media companies and NGOs that craft the messages we hear. The halls of government are full of lobbyists paid to wine, dine, convince and coerce political leaders into giving them what they want. And the legal system by design, the very Constitution which overrules the democratic process of any legislature or congress, protects them.

This is what we call a top-down system. The power is held by a few at the top, and the rules come down on the rest of us.

Real democracy should be bottom-up. That would mean people actually have the power and the rules go up to those who might be called leaders.

A Functional System Without Hierarchies

Don’t we need some sort of authority to make sure the people are in check and to maintain order? Sure, but who ought to have that authority is the question. What if it was with the people of a community instead of in some palace or government building? 

One such system that actually functions in the real world today is called Democratic Confederalism. Follow that link to see its own wikipedia page if you’d like to read a quick overview.

This is a system inspired by the writings of Murray Bookchin, expanded by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and Abdullah Öcalan, and instituted in Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous region in Syria.. 

“The right of self-determination of the peoples includes the right to a state of their own. However, the foundation of a state does not increase the freedom of a people. The system of the United Nations that is based on nation-states has remained inefficient. Meanwhile, nation-states have become serious obstacles for any social development. Democratic confederalism is the contrasting paradigm of the oppressed people. Democratic confederalism is a non-state social paradigm. It is not controlled by a state. At the same time, democratic confederalism is the cultural organizational blueprint of a democratic nation. Democratic confederalism is based on grass-roots participation. Its decision making processes lie with the communities. Higher levels only serve the coordination and implementation of the will of the communities that send their delegates to the general assemblies. For limited space of time they are both mouthpiece and executive institution. However, the basic power of decision rests with the local grass-roots institutions.”

Abdullah Ocalan

It’s not just theory, this has been implemented in the Kurdish region of Syria where 4 million people reside. 

I like this brief summary from Wikipedia:

"Rejecting both the authoritarianism and bureaucracism of state socialism and the predation of capitalism, seen by Öcalan as most responsible for the economic inequalities, sexism and environmental destruction in the world, democratic confederalism defends a "type of organization or administration can be called non-state political administration or stateless democracy", which would provide the framework for the autonomous organization of "every community, confessional group, gender specific collective and / or minority ethnic group, among other".

One of the most vital components of the system is a form of critique and self-critique called tekmil. I will leave a link to a post and downloadable PDF for more on tekmil below. Essentially it is a sort of mediated rule-based way of airing grievances, improving functionality and correcting behavior in any group. This is fundamental to participatory democracy.

Tekmil A Tool For Collective Reflection

731KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Social ecology and feminism are also vital components of democratic confederalism. 

There is much to be studied about how this participatory democracy works, but I don’t want to overburden this post with too many details that can be studied directly from other sources.

Suffice it to say that the Kurdish revolution has created a functional bottom-up system of democracy and we can learn a ton from what they have accomplished.

What then do the rest of us subjected to state hierarchical systems do? 

Dismantling Hierarchy

The most difficult part of the path before us is the dismantling part. The sovereignty of nations like the United States is backed up by some pretty powerful military might and a police state.

The Kurdish people are stuck between several sovereign nations including Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. The Islamic state which is very patriarchal by nature was also a threat in Syria. But as civil war broke out there, the Kurds took the opportunity to establish their own autonomous region. Ironically, this came as the Kurds were seen as an asset to the United States involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Point being that there are circumstances where a stateless democratic system like this can be implemented inside and even in coexistence with a sovereign state. That opportunity came in Syria, but still remains elusive in the other aforementioned nation-states.

The Kurdish are in a situation as an oppressed people together, making it much more possible to unite under a system like this. It took them some 40 years to get to this point from where they started. Granted, embracing feminism in an Islamic culture was something of a marvel. 

Most people in the Western world like the United States however still believe the current system is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Like people living in the Matrix, they don’t realize the fabricated construct of the system around them.

Some even believe that hierarchy is the way to go, that “might equals right.” There’s enormous ideological divide in terms of worldview. This presents a great challenge for establishing a bottom-up system, though it is not impossible.

More importantly, the people with the gold and the guns (those opulent oligarchs) wouldn’t stand for it. They’d come for anything threatening their stranglehold on their wealth and power.

Nonetheless, I have found in discussions with people across wide ideological thought that there is common ground when I’ve described this sort of system. I also think something like this might be the rallying point of a revolutionary movement, as well as a system of autonomous resilience that are vital to revolutionary movements. Finally, even amongst activists movements, mutual aid or affinity groups, this can be a model for localized conflict resolutions and generally organizing effectively.

As the world moves closer to ecological and social collapse, climate disaster, or even in the case of natural disasters, pandemics, supply line disruption or many other scenarios, democratic confederalism might serve communities preparing for resilience.

First, people have to know this is an option. More people need to hear about this and then experiment with it. Small groups and communities can begin practicing its methods. We can begin to create a form of self-government that is counter to the state.

I truly believe that this is the only way real change in other areas is ever going to take place. So-called peoples’ revolutions have occurred all over the planet only to see authoritarian regimes with state-capitalistic tendencies take over. In most respects they are as bad as the West.

I want to leave it here for now. We ought to ponder the power of local communities, of neighborhoods, affinity and mutual aid groups. There is no revolution, nor survival in some sort of individualistic approach.

Some of this may need some rebranding and tweaking for an American audience for example. Wherever you are, think of the blueprint that would work in your own neighborhood. One such blueprint I’ve heard of in the states is called Bioregionalism, such as the Cascadian movement in the Pacific Northwest.

What do you think? How could this work where you are? Have you heard of this before? I invite you to discuss in the comment box below. As always, thanks for reading. More soon.