Democratism: When Democracy Becomes an Idol

Democratism: Democracy as Religion*

I employed an exercise with students in high school to compare the French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1787) and the American Declaration of Independence (1776). Side by side, it is easy to see the differences. The American Declaration includes references to a transcendent being as the source of freedoms. The French Declaration repeats the phrase “the will of the people” fifteen times. Even in revolt against tyranny, the origin of authority matters.

The backdrop of “the people’s will” is a fitting entry into Jacob Wolf’s review of The Ideology of Democratism by Emily Finley. Wolf records Finley’s words that democracy is “perhaps the dominant political belief system in modern Western society.” Finley expands the impact of the process of “democracy” into a product, “the ideology of democratism.” Wolf contends, “Democracy has become a secular religion, complete with its own dogmas, practices, clerics, and eschatology.”

The Philosophy of Democracy

Ahead of any discussion of a worldview’s doctrine, comes its first principles, its philosophy. It is the “ism” in “Democratism” that sets the stage for belief. “Ism” as a suffix indicates the noun’s worldview. A plethora of examples exist to show how the designed ideal is corrupted by its worldview substitution: human becomes humanism, natural becomes naturalism, pragmatic becomes pragmatism. And as with any worldview, it is imperative to begin with its assumptions. What does “democratism” presuppose? In Wolf’s words, “A suitable replacement for Christianity.”

In a post-Christian culture, “Progress replaces providence, humanitarianism replaces charity, and mind (or reason) replaces God himself.” Nature and culture both abhor a vacuum. “Into the void left behind by Christianity have rushed all sorts of ideologies – that is, comprehensive systems of belief that purport to explain the whole of human thought, action, and purpose.” The obvious next step is the authority behind the new institution.

According to Finley, democratism needs “an elite legislator or vanguard” who will coerce through “propaganda” stripping individuals of their “particularities” who then become “little democrats.” Science fiction literature constantly warns humanity by asking the question, “Who watches the Watchmen?” With the question of authority comes the question of human nature, “Are we perfectible or are we corruptible?”

The Anthropology of Democracy

The worldview of democratism gained its doctrine of anthropology from none other than Jean Jacques Rousseau. Wolf rightly connects the people’s will “as Rousseau’s total redefinition of human nature, the natural goodness of man.” And when applied to governance, “Enter Rousseau’s deus ex machina – a quasi-divine legislator who can ensure the people choose rightly.” Once democratism’s dogmas about authority and humanity are set, “Finley see this divorce between actual and idealized wills as leading inevitably to a divorce between the people and their democratist leaders.” Politics are now detached “from individuals’ actual concerns,” allowing “powerful parties to cloak their own interests in the guise of something universal.”

Supplanting “powerful parties” was one of the aims of American framers in the U.S. Constitution. The first three articles in America’s founding document deliberately separate powers between executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Separate divisions of government rely on the premise that authority can be abusive from a few but mitigated by many. Further, contrary to Rousseau’s “natural goodness of man,” which is a “fundamental shift in anthropology,” three separate roles limit and restrain each branch, respecting the supposition that the human condition will tend toward corruption. (A pure democracy allows the majority to impose its will on a minority. In contradistinction, a constitutional republic assures all its citizens that their inalienable and minority rights will be protected against a majority.) America’s founders understood authority and humanity to be the hinges on which the door of governance would swing.

The Eschatology of Democracy

Democratism, on the other hand, has its own “belief system.” Apart from any outside source of authority and understanding humanity’s tendencies toward corruption, democratists “import into democracy a full-blown eschatology,” the “dream of a future utopia.” Achieving the promise of Heaven on Earth rests on a “sentimental humanitarianism.” Wolf counters the foundationless premise:

“By suggesting perhaps that it is not merely democracy, but progress, that is modernity’s reigning ideology. In truth, democracy worships at the altar of progress, which is why the democratists wait in expectation of a future blessed estate.”

Wolf’s next paragraph comes as no surprise, admitting, “Democracy, like many good things, is destroyed if it is elevated above all else.” The U.S. Constitution restrains the French Declaration’s “will of the people” with a republic of “checks and balances that parallel the complexities of human nature.” Wolf concludes by suggesting Rousseau’s influence on the French Revolution was “bewitched by a simplistic and false notion of human nature that is prone to delusional optimism.”

It is obvious to Hebraic-Christian thinkers that delusion is the essence of idolatry. YHWH warned the Israelites that idolatry begins by elevating creation over its Creator (Deut 4:17-19). The distinctive Hebraic-Christian view assumes human propensity for wrongdoing, in need of restraint. Necessarily, ubiquitous earthly ideals originate from a transcendent source, a total, cohesive, God-centered worldview (Col 1:15-20). Instead of an eschatology based in the vapid hope of human deliverance, Scripture clearly reveals the need for a supernatural Savior who is indeed “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

The Idolatry of Democracy

Figure #1

I use a diagram (Fig. #1) showing how original Truth is divorced from erroneous spinoffs such as democratism. I draw a large circle on the board identifying the totality of life given by God. Inside that circle I draw a tiny circle labeling it as an aspect of the whole, such as the concept of “democracy.” I then draw an arrow from that tiny circle to another large circle to the right. That circle now becomes the whole truth for that worldview vision, in this case, democratism. Wolf’s “association with Christian theology” certainly “assumes some of that original framework,” the necessity of doctrinal coherence, Heaven to Earth. Any human declaration, by itself, will always be insufficient. Human government finds its best principles, then practices, in the large circle, representative of the Whole Truth.

Anything good – including any form of human government – can be twisted into something bad. Democracy can indeed “die in darkness,”

as The Washington Post declares. But the newspaper’s original goal is insufficient if not every political candidate is painted with the same brush. Indeed, democracy by itself is inadequate to mold a stable political sphere. A majority in control without restraint to guard minority perspectives will devolve into tyranny. The French Revolution is a constant warning to any country, any group of people who believes majority rule without Transcendent Law, without an understanding of inherent human corruption, can bring justice, much less, peace.

*[The majority of this essay was written July 2023 and was first published at MarkEckel.com]

Dr. Mark Eckel is the Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University