It seems that we often find ourselves talking in terms that applied to politics and governments decades, if not centuries ago but that seem to matter less and less in these times. We often here statements about people having a right to self-determination or fighting for such a right in the history books. The Boston Tea Party comes to mind. So do some less successful but equally defiant acts like the lone protester in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square in '89. In each case, the right for self-determination was an ideal that individuals were willing to fight for not only for themselves but for their societies going forward.
The question on my mind today is whether or not we actually have gained much in the department of self-determination, given recent examples of government authoritarianism in supposedly free and democratic societies. Case in point is what is happening in Italy right now. I have been following the developments there casually, I will admit. Here is a good summary I read yesterday. (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-28/italian-banks-bonds-crash-di-maio-calls-protests-against-arrogance-institutions)
While I do consider myself worldly and knowledgeable, I will admit that there was a serious gap in my knowledge of Italian government in that I had no idea of the powers at the disposal of the President. I honestly did not know that this role was anything more than a figurehead at this juncture in history. To be able to block the appointment of a cabinet but a duly elected parliament and in essence causing the nullification of this election seems to be an extreme power for an unelected figurehead. You can like or dislike the direction the elected parliament was planning on taking Italy in but to have one person essentially torpedo the whole movement does not seem just. The fact that chaos is ensuing in the financial markets is only one piece of anecdotal evidence that something is seriously not right with what is going on there.
While I do not know enough about the Italian situation to comment on it as any sort of expert, it is truly troubling and it got me thinking about how many other countries could end up in the same predicament. We do not all have the transparency that countries like say Iran do, where it is clear that the elected officials are subordinate to the Mullahs. Some examples of more subtle reservation of unelected power can be found in countries like my own - Canada - or any member of the British Commonwealth for that matter, where the elected leadership technically serves at the pleasure of the monarch's representative. We take for granted that the powers of the crown have become ceremonial but what would happen if we elected a populist regime bent on leaving the Commonwealth and implementing an anti-Globalist agenda? Would the Crown sit idly by? There are literally dozens of major developed "democracies" that have figurehead unelected leaders who have dormant but not retired powers over elected officials and the populations they are attempting to serve. As we can see in countries that do not have this predicament, like the United States, it can be hard enough to manage the elected officials. If they are essentially made subject to the whims of a higher power in many other supposed democratic societies, watch out! It might not be the end of the world but it would be end of the illusion of the power of the ballot box and self-determination.
We can all dream of acts of self-determination and political movements that will better our lives in the future. We can even dream of real liberty and the implementation of a true libertarian society, however, will all of this just be wishful thinking if many of the existing democratic systems around the world are actually subject to the intervention of authoritarian overseers? All I know for now, is I am pretty sure that the Italian people did not intend to elect Carlo Cottarelli of IMF fame as a technocrat to lead their country when they voted back in March.
I hope we will all have some real choices and opportunities for self-determination in the future.
CW