One of our major cultural assumptions is that we are destined to spread democracy throughout the world. Now, when I say “destined,” I mean destined in the full sense of the 19th century idea of Manifest Destiny. As you listen to recordings of presidents from both Democrat and Republican ranks, you can hear the drumbeat of the idea that our particular calling in the world is that of spreading representative democracy.
President John F. Kennedy said: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” [It should be noted that the quote in context refers to democratic liberty.]
President George W. Bush said: “America is a Nation with a mission – and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace – a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.”
As you can see, the assumption of our presidents is not simply that we support “the dignity and rights of every man and woman.” We go farther than that. From before Kennedy’s time to today, our American presidents have reflected the belief of our populace that we have a mission as a country and that this mission does not simply involved liberty, dignity, and rights, but also involves a specific type of government, a democratic government.
More than that, please note that though we support a constitutional monarchy such as Great Britain or Denmark, that we do not tend to allow any countries in which we are involved to set up any type of monarchy. We will bend as far as a parliamentary democracy, and we do not have a problem with an unicameral legislature, but our sense of mission is clear. We see our mission as helping to defend liberty, in part, by exporting strongly the idea of a constitutional representative democracy with no hereditary offices. [Have fun parsing the grammar on that!]
But, here is my fun question for you. What does God think of a democracy? Actually, the answer to that is not that hard so let me phrase it a couple of other ways. What is the Scriptural warrant for a democracy? Is there any Scriptural warrant for a democracy being either the only system God will approve or the preferred system God will approve? Is there any Scriptural warrant for a hereditary monarchy? And, would God nowadays support a non-constitutional hereditary monarchy? Is there any Scriptural warranty for an oligarchy style of government?
This all goes to a comment posted recently that asked me what type of government a Christian should support. So, let’s do some looking at Scripture and history for a couple of posts. And, by the way, I have no specific personal opinion as to an exact type of government that God might want. So, these posts are not being written to support any one particular political view.
===MORE TO COME===
The so-called American “conservative” movement is more Jacobin in its impulses towards nation-building and imposing a “one size fits all” form of political polity on all countries, ignoring Edmund Burke’s sound wisdom in Reflections on the Revolution in France.
We have come to think, whether we are Democrats or Republicans, that the notions of “dignity and human rights of every man and woman” is inseparably wedded to a form of political organization: representative democracy. We believe that these good things can only come in one package, and we never stop to think about the historical and cultural traditions that give shape to a nation’s governing polity. Rather than working with those polities, we tell them to “be like us.” Rather than encouraging them to develop those polities in ways that would take into account “the dignity and rights” of their citizens, we encourage, and perhaps even bankroll, a “revolution,” only to see it backfire against us, and then we sit there and wonder “Why do they hate us!”
Kyrie eleison!
I thoroughly agree with you.
Fr. Ernesto,
I’m sure God wants a Steveocracy. I can feel it. 😉