UNIT 4 PILLARS OF DEMOCRACY: LIVING IN PEACE AND HARMONY

 Introduction to Peace, Harmony, and Democracy

Ultimate Aim: Peace and Harmony

• Goal of Human Activities: All human endeavors aim to achieve peace and harmony, both individually and socially.
• End-in-Itself: Peace and harmony are considered the ultimate goals, with all activities serving as means to this end.
• Applicability: This aim is relevant to individual, social, and political activities.

Role of Conduct and Governance

• Conduct with Others: Living in peace and harmony depends on our interactions with others.
• Choice of Government: Preference for a form of government that supports peaceful coexistence and individual well-being.
• Democracy in India: Chosen as both a form of government and a way of life, promoting individual development without compromising societal interests.

Principles of Democracy

• Equality: Democracy rests on the concept of equality among all human beings.
• Respect for Individuality: Recognizes and respects the individuality of each person.
• Rights and Duties: Balances individual rights with societal duties.
• Inclusive Participation: Encourages participation from all members of society.
• Justice: Ensures fairness and justice for all individuals.

Objectives of Studying Democracy

• Foundational Principles: Understand the basic principles of liberal democracy.
• Individual-Social Ethic: Justify democracy as an ethic that benefits both individuals and society.
• Modern Conception: Identify and explain the principles involved in contemporary democracy.
• Ensuring Peace and Harmony: Explain how democratic living promotes peaceful coexistence.
• Role of Mass Media: Discuss how mass media can both promote and deter free inquiry.

Concept of Democracy: A Historical Perspective

Origins in Athens

• Historical Context: About 500 years before Christ.
• Political Arrangement: Authority placed in the hands of the people.
• Initial Meaning: Democracy originally meant "rule by the people."

Evolution of the Term

• Changing Contexts: The meaning of democracy has evolved over time.
• Modern Connotation: Now encompasses more than just a form of government.

Features of Athenian Democracy (Phillip G. Smith)

1. Rights and Responsibilities: Every citizen had the duty and right to participate in a lawful government.
2. Separation of Affairs: Distinction between public and private affairs.
3. Socio-Moral Code: Even private affairs were regulated by a code in harmony with governmental principles.

Aspects Involved in Athenian Democracy

• Political: Citizen participation in governance.
• Economic: Regulation of economic activities in line with democratic principles.
• Social: Community involvement and socio-moral regulations.
• Moral: Adherence to a socio-moral code guiding both private and public life.

Modern Concept of Democracy: The Liberal Democracy

Foundations

• Based on: U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
  • Notions Involved: "Natural rights" and "social contract"
• Influences: Greek concept of democracy, American founding fathers

Key Concepts

• Equality, Liberty, Fraternity: Comprehensive view adopted by American democracy
• Abraham Lincoln’s Definition: "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people"
  • Implication: Democracy is a dynamic process, not a static system

Objectives and Functioning

• Prime Objective: Secure maximum fulfillment of individual abilities
• Dependence: Lives in the hearts of people, relies on attitude towards life rather than laws
• Functioning: Through peaceful give and take, allowing competing and conflicting groups to be heard

Role of Teachers

• Practice and Nurture: Encourage and practice democratic values in children

Democracy as Individual-Social Ethic

Broader Meaning of Democracy

• Traditional View: Democracy as a title for a process.
• Extended View: Democracy as a set of principles, a process, or a way of governance.

Key Relationships in Democracy

• Man and Nature: Connection between human beings and the natural world.
• Individual and Society: Relationship between personal autonomy and social responsibility.
• Core Concepts:
  • Freedom
  • Equality
  • Authority
  • Justice

Democracy as an Ethic

• Ethical Foundation: Democracy first as an ethic before being a form of government.
• Impact of Views on Human Nature: Different societies with different views on human nature will have different interpretations of democracy.

Principles of Democracy

Ethic and Guiding Principles

• Ethic: Set of guiding principles for human conduct (e.g., "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - Christian ethic).
• Consensus: Different views on human nature and society can find common ground on guiding principles for regulating individual and social affairs, including political affairs.

Commonly Accepted Principles of Democracy

1. Respect for Individuality:
   • Value and promote the growth of human personality.
   • Support conditions that allow personal development.
2. Confidence in Human Intelligence:
   • Trust in the capability of human intelligence.
   • Emphasize free and autonomous inquiry as a means of forming and informing opinions.
3. Rights and Responsibilities:
• Acknowledge the rights and responsibilities of individuals.
• Encourage appropriate participation in investigating and resolving shared problems.

Respect for Individuality

Different Views on Individuality

• Individual Significance in Society:
  • Some believe an individual's worth is tied to their societal identification.
  • Others believe in an individual's significance based solely on their individuality.
  • These differing views lead to varying opinions on conditions promoting human personality growth.

Common View in Indian Society

• Balanced Perspective:
  • Rejects extreme views.
  • Believes every individual, regardless of economic, social, racial, or religious considerations, is entitled to privacy in non-public matters.
  • Advocates for equality before the law in public matters.

Public vs. Private Affairs

• Distinction and Adjustment:
  • A balance is needed between individual independence and social control.
  • Laws must impose some rules of conduct to achieve this balance.

John Stuart Mill's Guide

• Exercise of Power:
  • Power can only be rightfully exercised to prevent harm to others.
  • Not sufficient to compel actions for an individual's own good, happiness, or perceived wisdom by others.
  • Persuasion is acceptable, but compulsion is not unless harm to others is involved.

John Dewey's Perspective

• Individual Behavior:
  • Freedom to act until harmful effects are noted by others.
  • Example: prohibiting littering or requiring pollution control in automobiles.
  • Respect for individuality includes recognizing areas of privacy and independence without implying unrestricted freedom.

Promoting Growth of Human Personality

• Conditions for Growth:
• Growth has direction and is not just a simple change.
• Effects of conditions on personality growth are empirical matters.
• Respecting conditions involves both conceptual and factual considerations.
• Image of a harmoniously developed personality is dynamic.
• Continuous scientific knowledge is necessary for development.
• Principle remains open-ended, allowing democracy to evolve with new potentials of human personality.

Confidence in Human Intelligence

Understanding the Concept

• Confidence in Human Intelligence:
  • Not about intelligence being evenly spread across the population.
  • Not about truth and right determined by majority vote or popular opinion always being right.
  • Means the freedom to follow truth wherever it leads and tolerate errors.
  • Experts, geniuses, gifted, and talented individuals can freely develop ideas without constraints.
  • Less gifted individuals can still find honourable work and have their ideas heard.

Relationship with Democracy

• Collective Intelligence:

  • Belief that collective intelligence, under conditions of free inquiry, will be good enough to allow for corrections.
  • In the long run, collective intelligence is more successful than any other alternative.

• Freedom of Speculation:

• Science and democracy are not based on religious or anti-religious commitments.
• Scientists and members of democratic communities are free to speculate and adopt any faith based on various justifications (religious, humanistic, or naturalistic).

Right and Responsibility for Appropriate Participation

Key Concepts

• Democratic Participation:

  • Every member of the public has the right to participate in investigating and resolving problems.
  • This participation stems from a sense of belongingness to the society.
  • The right to participate carries the responsibility to exercise that right.

• Nature of Participation:

  • Direct personal participation is not always necessary or appropriate.
  • Appropriate or feasible means of participation need to be devised for different situations.
  • Not all questions should be settled by a simple majority.

• Criteria for Decision-Making:

  • Autonomous groups, whether democratic or scientific, must create criteria for judgment and decision-making.

• Inclusivity in Decision-Making:

  • Every person, regardless of age or intelligence, has the right to participate in decisions affecting any public they are part of (e.g., children in family decisions, students in educational decisions, citizens in political decisions).

• Shortcomings of Dictatorship:

• Even a benevolent dictatorship falls short of the democratic ideal, as it does not allow for appropriate participation.

Democracy in Education

Basic Tenets of Democracy in Education

• Equality and Freedom:
  • Rooted in socio-political systems and education.
  • Indian Constitution’s Preamble ensures equality irrespective of caste, creed, color, sex, region, or religion.
  • Fundamental rights in the Constitution reflect equality.
  • Philosophers like Rousseau and J. Krishnamurthy emphasize equality and freedom.

Concept of Equality and Education

Analysis by Moore (1982)

• Equality:
  • Basic Meaning: Fairness or justice, not literal sameness.
  • Fair Treatment: Treating people equitably based on their individual differences.
  • Practicality: Providing equal opportunities to all is not feasible due to differences in intelligence, competence, needs, interests, and motivations.
• Differential Treatment in Education:
  • Students should be treated differently based on their needs, interests, and abilities.
  • Fair or Just Treatment: Aligns with the principle of social justice rather than literal equality.
  • Educational Justice: Involves differential treatment to suit individual student requirements.
• Equality vs. Justice:
  • Justice in Education: Ensures differential treatment based on individual needs.
  • Fair Treatment: Aligns with moral and practical acceptability.

Equality as Justice and Freedom

• Justice and Appropriateness:
  • Justice in education involves treating students according to their different requirements.
• Freedom in Education:
• "Freedom to": Providing students the freedom to achieve educational goals.
• "Freedom from": Removing inhibiting factors in the educational process.

Freedom in Education

Concept of Freedom

• Complexity:

  • Freedom is a highly sought-after goal but more complex than equality.
  • Root idea: Not being constrained by physical force or laws.
  • Education increases the ability to use freedom, not the amount of freedom itself.

• Freedom as Social/Political Good:

  • Dependent on laws, regulations, or social decisions.
  • Actions are good or bad only if done freely and autonomously.

• Thinkers on Education and Freedom:

  • Significant emphasis on freedom in child learning by Rousseau, Froebel, Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, Rabindra Nath Tagore, J. Krishnamurthy, and A.S. Neill.
  • Freedom is crucial for developing independent, self-regulating individuals.

Types of Freedom

• Preferred Freedoms:
  • Freedom to live where we please.
  • Freedom to vote, choose friends, express ideas, and accept a faith or religion.
• Discouraged Freedoms:
  • Freedom to steal, defraud, etc.
• Necessary Freedoms in Education:
  • For Teachers:
    • Freedom to organize work and adopt suitable teaching methods.
  • For Students:
    • Freedom to participate in learning and use school facilities.

Balancing Freedoms in Education

• Undesirable Freedoms for Students:

  • Freedom to be disorderly or inattentive.
  • Teachers must discourage these to maintain effectiveness and student interests.

• Contextual Freedoms:

  • Freedom to move about, work with peers, choose work methods.
  • Allowed or disallowed based on context.

Approaches to Freedom in Education

• Traditionalist:

  • Emphasizes knowledge and discipline.
  • Students should be quiet, attentive, and teacher-directed.

• Progressivist:

  • Focuses on personal development and self-imposed discipline.
  • Tolerant of freedom in the classroom for individual discovery.

• Balancing Extremes:

  • The degree of freedom should serve educational goals.
  • Freedom is a means, not the end of education.
  • Granting freedom should result in increased performance.
  • Freedom should be discouraged if it leads to disruption.