THE PARTY PERSON. DEMOCRACY& SECURITOCRACY.

BY : KHAIRI JANBEK.

By training the voter in moderation, in philosophical acceptance of the limitations of government, and yet giving him/her a real feeling that their consent is needed and valuable, the political party in the state, performs a most educational function. Because the coercive power of the political party; in the democraric state is small, the party leaders have to learn the difficult art of persuasion instead of falling of falling back on the too easy remedy of coercion.

However, the good party person, can only exist ina society in which the habit and duty of saying " NO" have been encouraged by all kinds of institutions, not merely by political ones.

The good party person, fulfills another important function. He/she ensures that, the politcian will watch with anxious care, those movements of opinion that can so easily turn into tidal waves of disapproval for hithrto invincible political leaders. it is not that the member of parliament is likely to revolt against party leaders, in as much as, he/she can tell their party leaders that a course of action; if persisted in, will alienate the independent voter, and may even drive of a few of the faithful. The politician thus talking to his'her chiefs, has an interest in frankness that is rare in autocratic (where the leader runs the state) or in securitocratic (where the security runs the state), where it is so much safer to tell the "boss' only what he wants to hear; since the only person whom you need to please, and whose anger is important; is the dictator.

Even the most popular and powerful democratic leader has a real motive to listening to the well-grounded fears of his lieutanents, as they stand all or fall together if the people turn against them. So, healthy democratic society, never gets into that condition common to dictatorships, in which until the very last moment of catastrophe, there is a conspiracy of optimistic silence, of which dictator and people alike are victims.

Spies snooping on a frightened people to report to illusion-fed chiefs, are a poor substitute for the brutal political truths told by second rank politcians, both afraid of their sovereign master. There is a constant dosing of unpalitable truth, that keeps the body politic healthy.