26 May 2006
Sen on Democracy
The Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, recently spoke at the World Bank in Washington, in a display of his expansive and insightful intellect. He appeared on the occasion of the publication of his new book, “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.” One offhand remark of his particularly stuck me. Referring to the “war on terrorism” that has dominated discussion of the “clash of civilizations,” (he never referred by name to Samuel P. Huntington) he agreed with the prescription of democracy as one solution. As an aside, he remarked that a popular mistake was to identify the institution of that method of government with the holding of elections.
As he pointed out more than once in his lecture, public discussion of matters of common concern is more central to the functioning of civil society than enforcing a specific polling method. Even in the case of regular voting, it is the interchange of ideas between the members of a group leading up to a decision by ballot that evidences mutual respect for individual intelligence, and that defines a system of human behavior worthy of our aspiration.
The Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, recently spoke at the World Bank in Washington, in a display of his expansive and insightful intellect. He appeared on the occasion of the publication of his new book, “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.” One offhand remark of his particularly stuck me. Referring to the “war on terrorism” that has dominated discussion of the “clash of civilizations,” (he never referred by name to Samuel P. Huntington) he agreed with the prescription of democracy as one solution. As an aside, he remarked that a popular mistake was to identify the institution of that method of government with the holding of elections.
As he pointed out more than once in his lecture, public discussion of matters of common concern is more central to the functioning of civil society than enforcing a specific polling method. Even in the case of regular voting, it is the interchange of ideas between the members of a group leading up to a decision by ballot that evidences mutual respect for individual intelligence, and that defines a system of human behavior worthy of our aspiration.
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