Hannah Kelley: Student

…Via late Latin from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule.’

I’ve been charged with asking myself what democracy means to me, and also with relating this relationship with democracy to what the same word and loose concept may mean to a Mozambican.

In a derridian spirit I’ve chosen to begin with the definition.

(Me)an-ing. Me (Hannah) an(d) ing.

-ing:

2 forming adjectives from nouns : hulking.
ORIGIN Middle English : alteration of earlier -ende, later -inde.

People, Me, an, creation of adjectives, rule.

I see democracy in theory as good. Checks and balances, political mediums to voice my concerns, equality with other citizens, these are, although ignored too much in practice, things that I care about and would fight to have/keep? But I don’t see equality in practice. In Detroit and Metro-Detroit I see a lot of people who aren’t sure who their representatives are, let alone what things they are voting on, changing, fighting or not fighting for. People seem to remember that they have “representation” when they are misrepresented. It’s a very negative way of conducting democracy – regressive vs. progressive political action.

People don’t contact their politicians because it “won’t change anything”. That’s the same line that many give for not voting, for not mobilizing or caring. That’s democracy?

We read “On Democracy”, or parts of it, by Robert Dahl for the class today. Dahl points out a few things that have led to the demise of democratic systems at different points in time, including: Civil unrest, war, militarization, corruption, and this is interesting — “a decline in the sturdy civic spirit”. (page 7) That last bit sounds familiar.

When we think of words, we think of working definitions. Words mean whatever they communicate in reality. “Meanings”, in many cases, cannot be static and are ever dependent on the way they are used in context, who is using them, what they mean to say (is it a play on words?). This all applies to the word democracy — that thing that is ever being lauded and exported and either liberating or oppressing…it’s used so much for rhetorical purposes nowadays that it’s hard for me to connect it to the things that I really do care about.

That’s what I want. People learning to live together. Not accept oppression – but work for an egalitarian society. To paraphrase Dr. King, ‘We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.’

But I’m moving away from calling this egalitarian society a “democracy”.

So in other words, to me, democracy has come to mean politicization, big media, the Iraq war, partisan politics… but it still also means that middle-school-civics-class definition (which I never had, btw) of everyone having a voice/representation, checks and balances/anti-corruption, meritocracy, something along those lines.

And Mozambique?

I’m guessing that democracy is meaning a number of things to the average Mozambican. There are so many different groups vying to change the political face of their country — NGO’s, banks, investors, neighbors, the active remnants of a one-party system..

I assume democracy means something closer to the tired-out politicized definition that I mentioned.

But it could be that Mozambicans are welcoming democracy per se as a transition away from the chaos and turbulent politics of the past. Maybe democracy will be perceived as the missing ingredient to finally create the “Mozambique for Mozambicans”, that was promised by Frelimo decades ago. But as I mentioned, “democracy” will change based on the way and context it is used in, who is doing the using, and what they mean to say. Is democracy organic in Mozambique? Are forces pushing the term on Mozambicans from the outside? If social equality isn’t achieved while Mozambique is experimenting with democracy, will the public blame the system or the context?