I live in a small dacha community where all the drivers yield the right of way to each other in a friendly, neighborly fashion. Someone driving a Mercedes-Benz is just as likely to give way to let a Zhiguli pass as the other way around. On a basic level, every vehicle has four wheels, and this means that everyone is equal. This is a good, simple model of a working democracy.
But it is another matter entirely on the community’s unpaved paths that cut through the nearby woods. I have noticed that the path is always blocked by felled trees. As it turns out, someone puts them there on purpose, thereby making passage impossible for bicycle riders, mothers pushing baby carriages or pensioners pulling their belongings in handcarts.
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I pulled some trees out of the way a couple of times, but they just kept reappearing. I couldn’t figure it out, so I finally asked a local man, “Who is putting the trees there, and why are they doing it?”
His answer was surprising: “This is all because someone decided to drive his all-terrain vehicle along the paths.”
That is a good example of a dysfunctional democracy. On the roadways, drivers are more or less well-off since everyone owns a car, and therefore they are considered “equal” regardless of how expensive or cheap the car is. On the unpaved paths, however, pedestrians are considered “poor,” and therefore a rich ATV that travels among poor pedestrians stands out like a sore thumb. In this poor environment, democracy cannot function. In its place, raw jealousy takes over. Therefore, it is more important to prevent the owner of the ATV from enjoying his wealth, even if it means causing problems for themselves as pedestrians.
Regarding the question of whether Russia is fit for democracy, there are usually two answers. Some say democracy is unnatural for Russia because the people are not ready for it. Others say the authorities are at fault for defeating popular attempts to create an open, democratic society.
The real problem is that no country with a large number of impoverished people is fit for democracy. After the humiliating defeat in World War I, the poor people of Germany voted for Adolf Hitler. Decades later, poor Venezuelans voted for the populist Hugo Chavez, and poor Iranians voted the radical Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into office.
There is a general rule that has been observed throughout history: If the people are poor, then “rule by the people” is often transformed into rule by a dictator. If these authoritarians deny the common people democratic rights, they perpetuate their abuse of power and turn the ruling elite into a petrified caste. As a result, the country inevitably degenerates and lags heavily behind other countries in terms of economic and political development.
Only the Industrial Revolution was able to break this vicious cycle. When industrialization brought wealth to large segments of society, this made democracy a stable form of government.
Modern Western democracy is built according to the principle that, while a Zaporozhets and a Mercedes-Benz might differ on the showroom floor, they have equal rights on the roads. But Iran, Venezuela and Russia are still built on the crude, unpaved paths where the “Stop that damn dirt buggy, whatever the cost!” is the guiding principle. Iranians, Venezuelans and Russians throw logs across our own road, even when this is to their own detriment.
Democracy is unfit for Russia because it is unfit for the poor.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.