Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Visalia Crash Sends Car Into Marie Callender’s After Driver Runs Red Light

15 hours ago

Gifford Fire Expands to 83,933 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

15 hours ago

S&P 500 and Nasdaq Lifted by Earnings, Fed Hopes

16 hours ago

Israeli Military Chief Opposes Gaza War Expansion, Raising Pressure on Netanyahu

17 hours ago

Israel Considers Full Gaza Takeover as More Die of Hunger

2 days ago

US to Initially Impose ‘Small Tariff’ on Pharma Imports, Trump Says

2 days ago

Cruz Criticizes Hochul for Wearing Headscarf at Slain Officer’s Funeral

2 days ago

Trump Says Banks Discriminate Against His Supporters While White House Prepares Order

2 days ago
No Politician Alive Can 'Save Democracy.' That Job Is Exclusively for 'We the People.'
Joe-Mathews
By Joe Mathews
Published 1 year ago on
March 8, 2024

Share

Democracy is not something you save. It’s something you do.

Most democracy exists at the local level and is best understood as “everyday people governing themselves.”

Democracy is not about voting for one powerful person, it’s about decentralizing decision-making power.


Please don’t save democracy.

Photo of Joe Mathews

Joe Mathews

Opinion

If you’re a politician — stop promising to save it.

Just stop trying.

Because you can’t. Democracy isn’t something you save. The sooner we stop talking about saving democracy, the better off democracy will be.

Our mindless recitation of “saving democracy”— everyone from President Biden to Sascha Baron Cohen has pledged its rescue — demonstrates how little we understand about the governing systems that organize our lives.

To start, the words “democracy” and “save” don’t fit together.

Democracy is not a penalty shot saved by a goalkeeper. Democracy is not a dollar saved in the bank. Democracy is not a file saved in Microsoft Word.

Democracy is not even the migrant saved from drowning in the Rio Grande.

Democracy Can Be Confusing

It’s easy to get confused about democracy’s meaning because we use the word “democracy” promiscuously. We use it to refer to things in politics or government with which we agree. We use it to describe the status quo in countries that think of themselves as democracies.

We also use “democracy” to refer to our post-World War II liberal order, supposedly superior to all other systems, even though that order often protects military and corporate powers that undermine democracy. We use “democracy” to mean elections, even though many countries with autocracies stage elections.

After 18 years of convening conversations about democracy around the world, I have found a more useful definition of democracy. Democracy is best understood as four words: Everyday people governing themselves.

When you think about democracy this way, you realize that democracy isn’t something you save. It’s something you do — with other people. When people in your neighborhood or city or nation are governing themselves — deliberating, making decisions, implementing policies — you are in a democracy.

Thus, democracy is a do-it-yourself enterprise. The philosopher G.K. Chesterton observed in Orthodoxy that democracy is like blowing one’s nose or writing love letters—something “we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly.”

So, when you judge whether a particular place counts as democratic, consider democracy as a spectrum, with “everyday people governing themselves” as its most democratic pole.

Local Is Where It’s At for Real Democracy

Soon, you’ll recognize that most democracy exists at the local level, in the smaller entities where it’s easier for everyday people to get together and govern. As Mahatma Gandhi wrote: “True democracy cannot be worked by 20 men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.”

Unfortunately, when asked whether they live in a democracy, people today don’t think of their city, but of their nation-state. They usually answer the question based on whether their national leaders are fairly elected and respect constitutional norms.

The word “democracy” has become a synonym for a safe destination, the political-economic equivalent of a comfortable sofa where we can lie down and relax. From this sofa conception flows the idea that democracy can be “saved” — from authoritarians or foreign powers or misinformation that might tear us from our sofas.

But real democracy is not a sofa. It’s not cushy. Democracy, at least democracy on the spectrum of “everyday people governing themselves,” is not about voting for one powerful person. It’s about decentralizing decision-making power and handing it to regular people.

For this reason, President Biden’s pledges to protect democracy — coming from an officeholder who can govern by executive order and take military action without public deliberation — will never be credible.

Get Off Your Couches

Democracy requires us to get off our couches. It also involves faith and competition, which is why it resembles religions or sports more than a system of government. Democracy is maintained through practice. If people stop going to Mass or listening to the Pope, Catholicism dies. If people stop throwing balls at rounded bats, there is no baseball.

So, if you value democracy, do it—wherever you can. Let the kids in your local sports league vote for the all-stars, instead of the coaches or parents. Let workers and customers make big decisions at your company. Create assemblies of everyday citizens to write your city’s ordinances.

And don’t waste another moment hoping your leaders will save democracy. Get out there and do it yourself.

About the Author

Joe Mathews is columnist and democracy editor at Zócalo Public Square, and publisher and founder of the planetary publication Democracy Local.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Who Drugged and Sexually Abused Minors Sentenced to 53 Years to Life

DON'T MISS

Clovis Police Arrest Four in Narcotics Bust After Five-Month Investigation

DON'T MISS

Overturned Big Rig Backs Up Highway 99 Traffic in Fresno

DON'T MISS

California Reveals 5th State Prison to Close Because of Falling Inmate Population

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Search for Robbery Suspect Near Blackstone Avenue

DON'T MISS

Trump Says US Will Charge Tariff of About 100% on Semiconductor Imports

DON'T MISS

Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race

DON'T MISS

Apple Commits Additional $100 Billion to US Investments

DON'T MISS

Fresno Taken Off Federal Sanctuary City List After DHS Reversal

DON'T MISS

Trita Parsi Shares Ex-Green Beret’s Account of Deadly Gaza Aid Sites

UP NEXT

Clovis Police Arrest Four in Narcotics Bust After Five-Month Investigation

UP NEXT

Overturned Big Rig Backs Up Highway 99 Traffic in Fresno

UP NEXT

California Reveals 5th State Prison to Close Because of Falling Inmate Population

UP NEXT

Fresno Police Search for Robbery Suspect Near Blackstone Avenue

UP NEXT

Trump Says US Will Charge Tariff of About 100% on Semiconductor Imports

UP NEXT

Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race

UP NEXT

Apple Commits Additional $100 Billion to US Investments

UP NEXT

Fresno Taken Off Federal Sanctuary City List After DHS Reversal

UP NEXT

Trita Parsi Shares Ex-Green Beret’s Account of Deadly Gaza Aid Sites

UP NEXT

First Date Turns Into DUI High-Speed Pursuit on Highway 99, CHP Fresno Says

California Reveals 5th State Prison to Close Because of Falling Inmate Population

9 hours ago

Fresno Police Search for Robbery Suspect Near Blackstone Avenue

9 hours ago

Trump Says US Will Charge Tariff of About 100% on Semiconductor Imports

9 hours ago

Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race

10 hours ago

Apple Commits Additional $100 Billion to US Investments

10 hours ago

Fresno Taken Off Federal Sanctuary City List After DHS Reversal

10 hours ago

Trita Parsi Shares Ex-Green Beret’s Account of Deadly Gaza Aid Sites

11 hours ago

First Date Turns Into DUI High-Speed Pursuit on Highway 99, CHP Fresno Says

11 hours ago

Tulare Co. Sends 86 to Drug Treatment Under Prop 36. Fresno Sends Only 3

11 hours ago

US Army Sergeant Suspected of Shooting, Wounding Five Fellow Soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia

11 hours ago

Fresno Man Who Drugged and Sexually Abused Minors Sentenced to 53 Years to Life

A Fresno man was sentenced Wednesday to 53 years to life in state prison for committing lewd acts involving three minors over a six-year spa...

7 hours ago

7 hours ago

Fresno Man Who Drugged and Sexually Abused Minors Sentenced to 53 Years to Life

Clovis Police arrested Jeremiah Gonzalez (top left), 25, Jonathan Simmavong (bottom left), 27, both of Clovis, Gursimran Mahal (top right), 25, and Zackary Torres, 26, both of Fresno, in a narcotics investigation that led to the seizure of drugs, a firearm, and illegal vape products. (Clovis PD)
9 hours ago

Clovis Police Arrest Four in Narcotics Bust After Five-Month Investigation

An overturned big rig on Highway 99 at Clinton Avenue caused major traffic backups in both directions Wednesday, August 6, 2025, afternoon in Fresno. (Fresno County SO)
9 hours ago

Overturned Big Rig Backs Up Highway 99 Traffic in Fresno

9 hours ago

California Reveals 5th State Prison to Close Because of Falling Inmate Population

Fresno police are searching for a suspect who robbed a person near Blackstone and Garland avenues and fled in a white Chevrolet sedan. (Fresno PD)
9 hours ago

Fresno Police Search for Robbery Suspect Near Blackstone Avenue

Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. (Reuters File)
9 hours ago

Trump Says US Will Charge Tariff of About 100% on Semiconductor Imports

President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters at the White House in Washington, July 30, 2025. The conversation between President Trump and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo came at a time when Cuomo was publicly pushing Mayor Eric Adams and other rivals to drop out of the race in hopes of consolidating the support of voters who oppose the frontrunner, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)
10 hours ago

Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race

10 hours ago

Apple Commits Additional $100 Billion to US Investments

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend