Democracy is all about decency and ethics in politics. It is about respect for the norms on which pluralism conducts itself. It is about men and women who come into politics conscious of their responsibilities towards those on whose behalf they govern, or would govern. And when they fail to live up to the standards expected of them, they make their way out.
That has been the rule with politics in the West. Last week, when Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab resigned in the aftermath of an inquiry damning him for his bullying of civil servants in his tenure in office, he was only following in the footsteps of individuals who once wielded power and then had circumstances compel them to say farewell to it.
And there you have the beauty of western politics. Most politicians, when they leave office or have to before their time is up, do so with grace. Certainly there is that heartbreak within them as they leave, that bitterness they are careful to conceal from the public. Not every politician in the West is in the mould of the cantankerous Donald Trump. Neither are there very many politicians who, like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, have their followers go on a rampage once they lose office.
Raab’s resignation is a reminder of the occasions when Britain’s politicians have in recent years thought it prudent to quit office rather than hang on to it. When he lost the Brexit referendum, David Cameron lost no time in informing the country that he was leaving 10 Downing Street. He could have stayed on, but morality was the principle on which he based his decision to leave. Much the same was the case with his successor Theresa May, who was forced to quit power through the machinations of her rivals, notably Boris Johnson, in government.
May nearly broke down as she delivered her farewell remarks before 10 Downing Street. Margaret Thatcher had a tear in her eye in 1990 as she drove away from the home-cum-office she had occupied for eleven years. In a certain way, Thatcher’s departure was a reminder of Harold Wilson’s resignation and handing over of authority to James Callaghan in 1976. But, of course, Wilson acted on his own convictions. No one forced him to resign, just as no one had forced Harold Macmillan to leave office in 1963.
Democracy is consistently a matter of trust. Politicians in the developed world remain conscious of the need to keep the promises they make before the electorate as they prepare for high office. Again, there are individuals such as New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, who convince themselves that there is a time for them to say farewell to power.
Ardern, with the vibrancy of youth yet characterising her personality, is today a former Prime Minister. One quite does not know if there will be a time for her to return to office, but that she felt a certain personal need to call it a day has only enhanced respect for her.
Politicians in power lose elections and when they do, they leave office in grace. Finland’s young leader Sanna Marin recently lost the election and even before the final results came in, showing her party in trouble, she resigned. This form of behaviour is reflective of the strength of political institutions in the West.
In Britain, once the election results are declared, the outgoing Prime Minister makes his or her way to the monarch, submits the letter of resignation to the sovereign, who then invites the new majority leader to form the government. Before the day is over, the new Prime Minister enters upon office.
And therein lies the power of democratic governance. But democracy is often a difficult calling, for there are always the dangers attendant on its exercise. In the United States, it took Richard Nixon an agonisingly long time to leave the White House in 1974.
He believed that he could tide over Watergate and survive in office. Other politicians and indeed the American people were, however, convinced that he had undermined the constitution, that he had lowered the dignity of the presidential office, and so had to go.
The Nixon resignation was a demonstration of the power of democracy. For those who keep faith with democracy, it is a means of speaking truth to power. Liz Truss, mismanaging things in Britain from day one of her entry into Downing Street, could not stay in office for more than seven weeks.
It was a bitter Truss who resigned. But more than the bitterness it was democratic convention which created the conditions which led her out of power.
In a democracy, voluntary resignation is a principled affair. Not long ago, Germany’s Angela Merkel decided to leave office after a long stretch in power. That was an ethical act in much the same way that the resignation of Willy Brandt as West German Chancellor in 1974 was an ethical act. Brandt was not pushed. He decided to walk away when an East German communist mole was discovered in his office.
But, yes, there are people who remain bitter when they are required to leave power or quit the leadership of a political party. Edward Heath was despondent when his party lost the 1974 election. And his bitterness increased when Margaret Thatcher beat him in the race for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1975.
There are lessons to be imbibed from democracy as it is practised in the West. That however does not detract from the reality of democracy often serving as a weapon for unsavoury characters to climb to high office or going close to it. Trump remains a disturbing instance of the weaknesses of democracy.
The rise of the far right in Europe, as evidenced by the rise of Viktor Orban in Hungary, remains a sign of how illiberal forces often derive advantage from democratic convention to seek power and in a number of instances gaining it before doing all they can to weaken the process of liberal political pluralism.
Marine Le Pen prepares for another go at power in France; Giorgio Meloni and her far right team are already in control of Italy. And let it not be forgotten that it was a democratic exercise of the vote which propelled the Nazis to power in Germany in 1933.
Despite its shortcomings and despite the sudden squalls it is sometimes buffeted by, though, democracy keeps politics in the West rooted to the soil. Politicians cannot make light of it, for it demands a comprehensive explanation of policies from them, for proof that they are qualified to govern.
Democracy energises society. It is dynamic. It has no room for charlatans. It is forever a laboratory for a sprouting of ideas, for those ideas to be employed in the service of nations.
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